France has put the Airbus A400M into live wildfire response for the first time, using the military transport to drop retardant over fires near Lacanau in Gironde on 25 July. The roll-on, roll-off kit turns the A400M’s cargo bay into a 20-tonne aerial tank without structural modification, giving French operators a heavier surge asset for laying retardant lines ahead of fast-moving fire fronts. The mission comes as France and Spain face prolonged heat-driven fire conditions and evacuation pressure, and it marks the A400M’s transition from prototype trials to operational civil-protection use, even as qualification work continues.