The A400M, the first all-new military airlifter produced in over thirty years, will tomorrow make its first public appearance at the production line in Seville, Spain. At a ceremony presided over by His Majesty Juan-Carlos I of Spain, the first aircraft will be revealed to its customers, government officials and an international body of journalists. Designed to common requirement identified originally by the European Staff Requirement (ESR), the A400M will introduce a whole new set of standards to the domain of military airlift. To date, 192 orders have been received from nine customer nations, comprising Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Malaysia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Optimised for both logistic and tactical operations and capable of transporting payloads of up to 37 tonnes over distances of up to 4700 nm, the A400M offers twice the capability of the aircraft it will replace. It also offers the potential for enhanced interoperability in international missions involving “coalitions of the willing” for both humanitarian and peace-keeping missions. With an initial contract worth some 20 billion Euros, the programme was launched in 2003 under a single contract between Airbus Military and OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d,Armement), the single contracting organisation representing the customers.

The A400M represents the state-of-the-art in military transport aircraft, incorporating many of the high-technology feature and new materials developed for today´s civil aircraft. This will offer new standards of safety and reliability to military transport fleets.

Source: Airbus Military
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