January 9, 2023: the rollout ceremony was held at
Beriev Aircraft Corp. for the first of the four Be-200ES multipurpose amphibians for Algeria. The flight tests are yet to be made.
In August 2021, the Ministry of National Defense of Algeria officially announced that it had entered into negotiations with manufacturers of fire-fighting aircraft and
selected the Russian Be-200. The Ministry announced its intention to purchase four Be-200ES aircrafts. Later on, Algeria rented one Be-200ES "water bomber plane" to extinguish forest fires in El Taref Province (June - September 2022).
The first Be-200ES aircraft for Algeria became the 19th Be-200 plane in succession. Twelve of them have been produced in Taganrog's assembly hall.
In summer 2022 one Be-200ES "water bomber plane" was rented by Algeria for a period of 3 months (June 15-September 15, 2022) to extinguish forrest fires in El Taref Province.
The Be-200 is a large aircraft that has the ability, among others, to take off and land in water, scoop up 12 tons of water and then drop that water on a wildfire in 18 seconds. One fuelling is enough for dropping up to 270 tons of water.
Beriev's Be-200 also can drop fire retardant chemicals, and deliver cargo, firefighters and other emergency equipment where they are needed. The airplane has a pressurized cabin and can be fitted with seats to carry passengers.
Earlier
in 2019, in
2020 and in
2021 BE-200ES planes participated in the first fire-fighting mission in Turkey. In 2005 a BE-200ES participated in
extinguishing two fires in the Southern part of Sardinia Island, Italy.