"Royal Air Force Airbus A400M new generation airlifter " Topic

"Airbus Defence and Space has delivered the first Airbus A400M new generation airlifter to the Royal Air Force, beginning the next stage of the transformation of the United Kingdom´s air mobility fleet. The aircraft is the first of 22 ordered by the UK and will be known in service as the A400M Atlas.

Prime Minister David Cameron was today guest of honour at a ceremony to celebrate the acceptance of the aircraft at RAF Brize Norton, which is in his parliamentary constituency, where the entire Atlas fleet will be based. He was accompanied by Minister for Defence Equipment Support &Technology Philip Dunne.

Executive Vice President Military Aircraft, Domingo Ureña Raso, said: "It is an enormous pleasure to see the A400M entering service with the RAF which is one of the leading exponents of military air mobility worldwide. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all our employees, especially those in the UK, as well as OCCAR and our UK customer for making this day possible…"

Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

Hmmm, if it was to replace some C-130s, fine but you still can`t supply 5 bases with 2 aircraft. the c-130 is an ideal size to get into some smaller airfields.

The SF Flt will be retaining some Herks for precisely that reason.

Lockheed has missed the boat by not designing a replacement for the C-130. I spent many an hour fly on the C-130 during my 26 years of service. From the three Bladed A model to the E model. C-130 is one heck of an aircraft.

They did design a replacement for the C-130. It was the C-130J.

Glad to see the A400M is finally getting somewhere after years of troubles.

The A400 is about twice the size of a C130 (in terms of cargo capacity).

Personally, I think the Embraer KC390 is a better "replacement" for the C130. But it's too bad that the YC14 never entered production. That bird needed half the runway a C130 does!