After years of delays and enormous cost over-runs, Airbus on Monday delivers its first A400M military transport plane, turning in the large turboprop to France at its Spanish assembly plant.
The pan-European aircraft maker expects the ceremony on the Airbus Military plant in Seville, southern Spain, to be the beginning of sales to military forces worldwide.
The plane was actually delivered on August 1 however the official ceremony was being held Monday within the presence of French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Spain’s Prince Felipe.
The French minister was to come back to an army base in Orleans aboard the tactical lifter, that is equipped with propellers measuring greater than five metres (16 feet) long.
It took 10 years to bring the A400M to the skies in a single of the eu military industry’s most ambitious projects, backed by seven partners: NATO members Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.
The project was dogged by delays and broken budgets as developers struggled with the complex engine design and the divergent requirements of client nations.
In January 2010, Tom Enders, then Airbus head, even threatened to depart the project if the seven countries refused to share the budget over-runs.
Two months later, they reached an agreement in principle, however it took another year of arduous negotiations to sign a last contract because the European economic and fiscal crisis squeezed military budgets.
Finally, four years late and six.2 billion euros ($8.3 billion), or 30-percent, over budget, Tom Enders, now chief executive of Airbus parent EADS, is turning in the revolutionary aircraft to France, its first client.
The A400M was designed on the request of European chiefs of staff after the primary Gulf War of 1991, which exposed the necessity for any such plane.
“It will transform the way in which military operations work,” Ian Elliott, vice-president of Airbus Military, told AFP.
“For the primary time ever, it is going to allow combat delivery within the point of meet,” he added.
Equipped with four turboprops, it could transport as much as 37 tonnes including armour or helicopters over a distance of three,300 kilometres (2,050 miles) but in addition land on unprepared terrain akin to sand.
“I have flown about six or seven times and it’s fantastic,” Elliott said, touting the relaxation within the cabin, modelled on that of the Airbus double-decker superjumbo A380, and other qualities inclusive of its quietness and its seats, developed with the recommendation of paratroopers.
The A400M stands out as the sole plane that you can purchase to challenge the alternative US long-range military transport aircraft, Lockheed Martin’s C-130 Hercules, which has a capacity of 20 tonnes and was designed greater than 50 years ago.
Its other rival, the C-17 Globemaster, that can lift 76 tonnes, will fall out of production from 2015, US manufacturer Boeing announced recently.
Within a month, France will receive its second A400M and Turkey its first. a 3rd plane is scheduled to be dropped at France by the top of this year.
Airbus Military aims to export 400 A400M planes inside the next 30 years, beyond the 174 already ordered in Europe and Malaysia. Germany has ordered 53, France 50, Spain 27 and Britain 22. The manufacturer will assemble 10 planes next year, after which about 30 a year.
Airbus Military chief Domingo Urena-Raso said the plane maker was targeting the Gulf and the Asia-Pacific region, where several countries were renewing their fleets.
The strongest selling point may be the way the plane performs in military operations over the following four or five years, Urena-Raso said in June.
The reaction of French and British air forces may be key, said Airbus Military’s Elliott.
“The French Airforce and the Royal Air Force have an amazing credibility around the world so in the event that they are really happy about it, their opinion will matter,” he said.
“We are already speaking to many US military officials,” Elliott said, adding that the aircraft would even be “perfect” for humanitarian operations.
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