According to CCTV News, China’s independently developed large amphibious aircraft, the AG600, recently carried out its first-ever water scooping and dropping exercise in a natural wild environment at the Songhua Lake waters in Jilin Province. On the day of the exercise, the AG600 took off from Changbai Mountain Airport, covered a distance of approximately 190 kilometers, and arrived at the Songhua Lake waters, swiftly transitioning into operational mode.

The AG600 is designed with two primary mission modes: water scooping and dropping, and water injection and dropping. After scooping up 12 tons of water at the airport and flying to the designated area to release it, the aircraft can then continue to scoop and drop water nine more times, achieving a total water-dropping capacity of up to 120 tons. The precipitation in the targeted area reaches the level of heavy rain or more intense, covering an expansive area of over 40,000 square meters. Currently, the production and test flights of the three batch-produced AG600 aircraft have been successfully completed, and these aircraft are set to be delivered to users within the year.