Heres a post on the subject I made earlier in the week:
VLAT’s are the cheaper option compared to smaller tankers.
They can lay down more retardant per flight hour and can also reduce total incident cost by shortening duration resulting in additional savings in ground resource cost.
Here is an older but public comparison on costs.
Microsoft Word - COMPARATIVE COSTS_Colockum Tarp, w-o name.docx (wildfiretoday.com)
from here:
CA-INF-Pizona?? - California & Hawaii Hotlist / Questions and Discussion - Wildfire Intel