The letter below that Ken Pimlott, the Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection wrote to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Tom Tidwell, states unequivocally that CAL FIRE is not pleased with the current state of the large air tanker fleet which has disintegrated by 75 percent over the last 10 years to only the 11 we have today. They also point out that the recent USFS Large Air Tanker Modernization Strategy is insufficient to meet the needs of the combined federal, state and local wildland firefighting missions.
