US Air Force (USAF) firefighters will soon be equipped with a new vehicle, the P-34 rapid intervention vehicle (RIV).
The P-34 RIV is a small agile vehicle designed to accommodate three firefighters and their equipment and will be in the air force inventory for a minimum of 12 years.
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The vehicle also has two 200ft hand lines that output 15gal of liquid a minute to allow firefighters to perform interior firefighting operations and rescue.
The RIV will replace the older P-19 vehicles, which have been in service with the AF crash response since the 1980s.
AFCESA firefighting subject matter expert Jim Podolske said: “This will be the first firefighting vehicle in the USAF to use new ultra-high-pressure firefighting technology.”
The ultra-high-pressure technology allows the vehicle to discharge a mixture of water and firefighting foam three to three-and-a-half times more effectively than conventional firefighting vehicles without having to be resupplied.
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By GlobalDataThe first RIV production model will undergo an exhaustive battery of operational, mechanical and safety tests along with concurrent inspections conducted through a third-party tester.
Production of the vehicle will begin by late September 2011 and the Tyndall AFB Fire Emergency Services Flight will receive the first of the P-34s.
