The Royal Air Force (RAF) has already taken delivery of its last A400M Atlantis military transport aircraft from the 22nd fleet which it received from Airbus as a program partner in Germany, France and Spain. Designed in England from Hispal Norton, it arrives at the Brize base, where it is assembled, like the other units of this model. The good performance of the machine caused the RAF to seek to acquire six units, as the Chief of the Air Force Mike Wigston demonstrated a little more than three months ago before the British Defense Commission
The RAF declares in a statement, on the occasion of the reception of the last unit of its A400M fleet, how “recent incidents in Sudan have once again highlighted the importance of tactical air mobility”. Notable details: “Atlas, working from the austere air, helped evacuate more than 20,000 people and bring them to safety.”
As Air Vice Marshal Mark Flewin explained, this aircraft features a fly-wire flight containment system. [por cables] and a fully digitized cockpit. It can carry a 37,000-pound payload over 2,000 miles (more than 3,220 kilometers), to both fixed and remote civilian and military targets. “Extraordinary short-field performance allows for unprepared and semi-prepared cradles from short, all-night vision goggles.”
The development of the platform will continue with the development of retrofitting the aircraft to complete the configuration with significant communities with aircraft operators of other A400M: France, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Benelux and Malaysia, explains in its note. RAF In parallel, it will continue to expand its tactical capabilities, including a full extension of support to the UK’s air forces.
Since his entry into service with the RAF in 2014, Atlas, the text continues, has proven his worth several times: “He excelled during the relief operations in the Caribbean and fully contributed to the military response to the covids, patients, equipment and transporting the vaccine.” In addition, he “played a key role in the evacuation of authorized personnel from Afghanistan and Sudan” and undertook defense operations around the world, including in the Middle East, in Mali and Mali.
The A400M also “supports long-term operations in the Middle East and NATO air policing operations in the Baltics.” Finally, an official source states, “In Britain, Atlas has a 24/7 national commitment to support and maritime reconnaissance (MRR) in the English Channel, search and rescue (SAR. ) and surveillance. Atlas is also based in the Falkland Islands, where maritime reconnaissance , it provides search and rescue services in the South Atlantic and medical evacuation, and, with the benefit of refueling flights, air drops are provided in Antarctica.”
High availability
The A400M is considered a suitable device for fulfilling both tactical and strategic military transport missions. It is the aircraft model with which the British company has achieved higher availability rates in recent months than the Boeing C-130J military transport, which replaced the Airbus A400M.
Between March 2021 and last September, the availability of US aircraft was specifically below 60%, while the European aircraft intended to replace most of the C-130J achieved rates that ranged between 65 and 70%, according to a parliamentary response of November 14.
The third model of the RAF military transport ship, the C-17, also from Boeing, is the one that achieved the best results: between 75 and 88% availability is reported during the same period.
