RIFLE, Colo. (Sept. 24, 2026) — Every catastrophic wildfire starts as a small fire.
Nightfall, heavy smoke, severe weather, difficult terrain and limited resources can all delay suppression efforts. These challenges create what aerial firefighting professionals have identified as a “denied environment.” These are situations that restrict or delay a firefighter’s ability to suppress wildfires safely and quickly.
The longer a wildfire burns without effective suppression, the greater its opportunity to spread, intensify, and impact people, communities, critical infrastructure and natural resources.
The Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting (CoE), part of Colorado’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC), is exploring whether a fundamentally different approach to aerial suppression could help firefighters reach new and emerging fires earlier in remote or difficult-to-access environments.
A New Way to Deliver Water to Wildfires
The CoE is conducting operational testing, evaluation and validation of the Precision Guided Suppression Unit (PGSU). Developed by Prime Minute, a public safety and natural disaster response technology company, the PGSU is a new type of aerial water-delivery system designed to suppress new and emerging wildfires at the earliest stages.
Unlike traditional aerial water delivery, where aircraft must fly low and directly over the fire, the PGSU can be released from 12,000 feet above ground level. After deployment, the unit uses GPS guidance and onboard flight controls to steer toward a predetermined target. Its aerodynamic control surfaces allow it to adjust its flight path in response to changing wind and weather conditions, increasing accuracy and safety.
“This technology offers a unique opportunity to deliver rapid initial attack from new heights. Traditional aerial suppression tools are sometimes limited by the need to fly low and slow over the fire, which restricts when and where they can be used safely. The PGSU allows us to suppress new and emerging wildfires in situations and environments that have previously been out of reach,” said Anthony Somogyi, Aviation Projects Manager for the CoE.
Each PGSU weighs about 1,000 pounds and carries 110 gallons of water. Rather than relying on a single unit, the operational concept involves an aircraft deploying multiple PGSUs over an emerging fire. This coordinated approach enables a concentrated and more effective suppression effort, with several units working together to target different parts of the fire simultaneously.
When a PGSU reaches its target, it releases its water through a specially engineered dispersal system that spreads the payload evenly across a 35-foot suppression radius.
Looking Beyond Incremental Improvement
For the CoE, this project raises a larger question facing the wildfire community: Can emerging technology expand when, where and how firefighters can engage in unwanted fire?
“Public safety has an extraordinary culture of continuous improvement, and those incremental gains make us safer and more effective,” said Ben Miller, Director of the Colorado Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting. “But the wildfire environment is changing so rapidly that it demands that we ask whether there is an entirely different way to accomplish the mission.”
That question gets to the heart of the CoE’s mission. As a government organization, the CoE is unique because it has a dedicated, full-time team that specializes in researching, developing, testing and evaluating not only advanced wildfire technologies but also tools that impact all first responders across every discipline. This specialized focus creates a space where new ideas and technologies can be rigorously tested, evaluated and refined before being considered for operational use.
Operational testing and validation of the PGSU will assess its safety, precision and accuracy. This process will also examine how deploying multiple PGSUs could be integrated into existing wildfire operations. Ultimately, the goal is to determine whether precision-guided water delivery can give firefighters a new tool to reach and suppress wildfires while they are still small, especially in situations where traditional aircraft may be constrained.
“Incremental improvement will always be essential,” Miller said. “But somebody also has to look beyond the next improvement and explore the capabilities we may need tomorrow. At the end of the day, we improve the system after every mission, but to gain ground, we may need to change the system.”
The PGSU project is one example of the CoE’s broader mission to pursue technologies that could create a generational change in public safety — not simply by improving existing tactics, but by exploring entirely new capabilities that could help firefighters intervene earlier and change what happens between ignition and a growing wildfire.
Learn more about the project and see how the PGSU works at cofiretech.gov/pgsu.
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About the Center of Excellence
Founded in 2014, the Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting (CoE) is a premier research and development organization within the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control. The CoE’s mission is to advance emergency response by introducing innovative technologies and setting new standards in public safety for the benefit of Colorado communities. While the CoE routinely evaluates new technologies developed by third-party organizations, testing these products is strictly for research and does not serve as a commercial endorsement.
