I wonder what these things will cost per 3 gallon pop? An Excalibur guided artillery shell is going for a bit under $70,000 per shot.And the shell would release its load of fire suppressant by virtue of a complex array of gizmos, including a timer, an altimeter, a global positioning device, temperature and pressure sensors and a distance measuring device.
If the prices are similar, delivering suppressant equivalent to a single run from a C-130 with MAFFS is going to take ~570 artillery shells and cost about $30 million. In which case you could have just purchased a whole new C-130 and doubled your capacity instead.
It's a cool idea and it has the potential for high volume, but it seems like to much technology is stuffed into each artillery shell to be cost effective. I hope I'm wrong!
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