Fund crush has forced Spanish Air Force to reduce the number of Airbus A400M military transport plane to be initially acquired. Spanis...
Fund crush has forced Spanish Air Force to reduce the number of Airbus A400M military transport plane to be initially acquired.
Spanish Air Force and Airbus Defense and Space has agreed for a reduced no of 14 A400Ms, which will be delivered by 2022.
The decision to acquire the remaining 13 has been postponed until 2024, reports flightglobal.com.
The first Spanish A400M, designated MSN44 will shortly enter into the final assembly process at Airbus's Seville assembly line in Spain. The aircraft will be delivered in the second quarter of 2016.
The A400M has received orders for 174 aircraft from UK, France, Spain, Germany, Turkey and Malaysia. Delivery delay and capability shortfalls have irked its customers including Germany and Turkey.
The troubled program saw crash of a production aircraft on its maiden flight in Spain in May 2015. A400M's inability to refuel helicopters in flight forced France to order 4 C-130J based tankers and airlifters from United States.
With an ability to transport 38 tonnes, the four engined A400M is placed in between the 16 tonne C-130 airlifter and the 70 tonne heavy Boeing C-17 Strategic airlifter.
