A conscious shift from fire-specific water bombers to more general-purpose lift-and-shift aerial assets capable of a broader range of emergency tasks could soon see Australia’s critical response air fleet outnumber the aircraft in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

In an outline of how new federal emergency management funding will be applied, Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt has revealed that the combined national emergency air fleet shared between the states and bolstered by private operators now sits at “more than 500 aircraft, provided by over 150 operators” that are “available for firefighting across Australia.”

The RAAF, at last count, had around 250 aircraft, give or take the interment of some 45 MRH 90 choppers deemed unsafe and defective for operational use.

The big issue Defence faces is that its fleet is increasingly being called upon to respond to civil emergencies, hence the investment of additional non-military fleets beyond firefighting.

Civilian fleets have always been just that, and always vastly outnumbered military fleets. That’s not really the argument.