UK defence secretary Michael Fallon has challenged Airbus Defence & Space to maintain its drive on the A400M programme during 2017, so that the Royal Air Force can take full advantage of its capabilities across a wide range of operational conditions.
“I am encouraged that A400M is available for extended, worldwide strategic operational deployment,” Fallon told an Airbus Group reception in London on 24 January. “The challenge I give you for this year is to ensure that all of those aircraft can operate in all environments, from benign to hostile, so that our forces can summon up that vital flexibility when they need it.”
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Fallon says the RAF has received 14 of its eventual 22 A400Ms, with the type operated from the service’s Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire. The UK’s oldest Atlas – ZM400 – has been in use for just over two years, and Airbus confirms that its two most recent examples were handed over on 22 December 2016.
Flight Fleets Analyzer records Airbus as having so far delivered another 24 production examples of the A400M. The type is also in current operation with the air forces of France (11), Germany (six), Malaysia (three), Turkey (three) and Spain (one).
Source: FlightGlobal.com
