Integrating Drones into Wildfire Fighting

Drones offer new ways to monitor, track, and support wildfire response operations. Credits: NASA

1. Introduction

Wildfires are becoming more frequent, larger in scale, and more destructive than ever before. In 2024 alone, the U.S. saw nearly 65,000 wildfires burn approximately 8.9 million acres—one of the highest annual totals on record—and came just after the 2023 season, which burned 2.7 million acres. Meanwhile, wildfire suppression costs in 2023 reached $2.7 billion, contributing to over $3.17 billion in total damages. Beyond economic impacts, wildfires increasingly threaten lives, infrastructure, air quality, and can also exacerbate climate change through massive CO₂ emissions.

1.1 How Wildfires Work: The Fire Tetrahedron

To understand how to fight wildfires, it helps to understand how they ignite and spread. The fire tetrahedron outlines the four key components required for fire:

Heat
Fuel
Oxygen
Chemical chain reaction

Eliminating any one of these can suppress a fire. Traditional firefighting methods focus on removing fuel (e.g., controlled burns), reducing heat (e.g., blasting water), or preventing supply in oxygen and interfering with the chemical reaction (e.g., in part what fire retardants do).

1.2 State of the Art in Wildfire Response

Current wildfire response involves a mix of satellite imaging, manned aircraft (like tankers and helicopters), ground crews, and predictive fire modeling. These methods offer valuable capabilities, but also face major limitations:

Surveillance is infrequent and often delayed
Aircraft operations are limited by daylight, visibility, and turbulence
Communications infrastructure is inconsistent, especially in remote areas
Multiple agencies must coordinate with different technologies

NASA’s assessment with the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies confirmed these gaps. There’s a pressing need for persistent surveillance, interoperable communications, and modern airspace management to safely coordinate diverse aircraft, especially in chaotic emergency environments.

1.3 Where Drones Fit In

Drones can help fill critical gaps in wildfire response:

They can fly day or night, even when visibility is poor
They offer persistent aerial presence, acting as “extra eyes” for command centers
They can be deployed rapidly for search and rescue, emergency deliveries, mapping, or live monitoring
They’re typically less costly and easier to deploy than manned aircraft

Unlike manned aircraft, drones don’t depend on pilot availability or crew rest cycles. They can be automated, pre-positioned, and scaled across incidents. But to safely integrate drones into wildfire airspace—alongside helicopters, tankers, and manned spotter aircraft—we need new technological frameworks and tools for coordination.

This is where NASA’s ACERO project steps in.

Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO). Credits: NASA

2. Introducing ACERO: A New Framework for Aerial Wildfire Coordination

To safely integrate drones into wildfire airspace, NASA Ames Research Center is leading the Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project. ACERO addresses critical challenges in wildfire response by developing technologies for:

Wildfire airspace management
Resilient communications and surveillance
Coordinated operations of both manned and unmanned aircraft
Human-centered decision support systems

One impactful outcome of ACERO so far is the development of the Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS).

What is PAMS?

PAMS is a rugged, field-deployable case that houses all the essential tools a drone operator or mission supervisor needs that allow to safely coordinate drone operations during wildfire or emergency response efforts. The case includes:

A computer with display and mission coordination software
Radios and networking gear for air-to-air and air-to-ground communication
Support for real-time coordination between drones, helicopters, and command centers

Its purpose is to allow rapid, safe drone deployment in emergency scenarios, without compromising airspace safety. During a wildfire, decisions must be made in seconds—not minutes. PAMS enables teams to:

Quickly obtain airspace clearance
Coordinate with manned aircraft crews
Avoid airspace conflicts between drones and other emergency aircraft

By making situational awareness tools portable and self-contained, PAMS ensures that small teams operating in the field have access to the same coordination tools previously only available in large command centers.

Designed for Emergency Use

In a wildfire, conditions evolve rapidly. PAMS was built with these challenges in mind:

Fast deployment and boot-up
User-friendly interface so responders can focus on the mission, not the tech
Interoperable communication support, accounting for the fact that multiple agencies (local, state, federal) may use different radios or protocols

In practice, PAMS functions like an on-the-go UAS traffic control center—helping drone pilots respond faster while maintaining visibility into a shared airspace environment. It’s not just about flying a drone—it’s about flying safely, in a space shared with crewed aircraft, multiple agencies, and unpredictable fire conditions.

3. Conclusion: Demonstrations, Human Factors, and What Comes Next

NASA’s ACERO team has already demonstrated early versions of this technology in the field—most notably in the rugged mountain ranges near Monterey, California. These flight exercises proved that drone coordination and wildfire airspace management can be executed more safely and efficiently using portable tools like PAMS.

But this is just the beginning. Several key areas are now being improved and expanded:

Human-Centered Interface Design

When dealing with fast-changing emergencies, ease of use is essential. One major focus is refining the PAMS software interface to ensure:

Minimal training is needed, even for first-time users
Interfaces are intuitive, clear, and reduce operator workload
Critical information is displayed with appropriate prioritization and clarity

The goal is to make the system so easy and reliable that firefighters and drone operators want to use it—even under stress.

Flexible Communication Integration

Wildfire response involves many agencies—fire departments, forest service, military, local law enforcement—each with their own tools and protocols. A current challenge is ensuring PAMS can integrate a wide variety of communication systems, including:

VHF/UHF radios
LTE/cellular and SATCOM
Mesh networks and ground relays

This level of flexibility is essential for interoperability in the field and is a key step toward making the technology widely adoptable.

Towards the Final PAMS Case

The ACERO team is also working on a finalized version of the PAMS unit—one that is:

Rugged enough for harsh environments
Compact and easy to deploy
Modular, so it can adapt to future technologies or mission types

Ultimately, the vision is to modernize aerial emergency response using scalable, interoperable, and field-proven tools—empowering drone teams to operate faster, safer, and more effectively, even in the most challenging conditions.

4. Sidenote: Drone Incursions during Wildfires

Drone Incursions During Wildfires (2025)

Sidenote-the problem of incursive drones. Credits: National Interagency Fire Center

As of May 14, 2025, there have already been 18 reported drone incursions during active wildfire incidents. Every single one of these incidents disrupted or delayed aerial firefighting operations, putting lives and property at risk.

When an unidentified drone not involved in response efforts (i.e. there to capture dramatic footage) is spotted near a wildfire, firefighting aircraft must be grounded immediately. Pilots cannot risk a midair collision with an unknown UAV. These delays cost critical time, slow containment efforts, and can allow fires to grow unchecked.

5. Extra: Portable Ground Radars for Increased Awareness and Safety

As the ACERO project progresses, one next step is the deployment of portable ground-based radar systems at the wildfire response perimeter. These systems would:

Track and manage authorized drones and crewed aircraft
Detect and geolocate unauthorized or rogue drones in real-time
Support safer and more scalable airspace operations in high-tempo emergencies

This approach not only improves situational awareness, but also supports enforcement and safety—helping incident commanders take swift action if a drone threatens operations. Additional sidenote: foreshaddowing for a next blog post.

Sources

Image Credits

NASA
NIFC