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Airbus and NATO announced the acquisition of more aircraft Airbus A330 MRTT to support patrol missions on the West Flank.
NATO Support and Procurement Agency has ordered more multi-role tanker transport aircraft (MRTT, for its acronym in English) Airbus A330, which increases the multinational fleet of MRTT to 10 planes.
This announcement follows the decision of Belgium to increase their number of hours in the program with 1.100 additional flight hours per year. The multinational fleet of multi-purpose tanker trucks (MMF) provides strategic transportation, air refueling and medical evacuation capabilities to its six participating countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway. These nations signed the Memorandum of Understanding that allows them to share costs proportionally according to the national commitment of flight hours per year.
“Since the arrival of the first plane in 2020 and especially since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the MMF is protecting European sovereignty and showing its capabilities as a versatile provider”, said Jean Brice Dumont, Head of Military Air Systems at Airbus Defense. and space. With this new order, NSPA has already procured one of four requested optional MRTTs beyond the previously contracted nine aircraft, which demonstrates the level of customer satisfaction”.
MMU of opera seven A330 MRTT and reached initial operational capability on 23 of March. Full operational capability is expected by mid- 2024.
Its success is based on the excellent cooperation between NATO, participating nations and industry. The program is also an example of how nations can cooperate, pool and share resources for continuous access to cutting-edge capabilities.
The unit has been deployed to the Eastern Flank of NATO, as well as for the evacuation of civilians and refugees from Afghanistan and for multinational exercises in the Indo-Pacific region with the German Air Force, among other missions.
Two of the tankers yet to be delivered are expected to enter service in 2024, while this new aircraft will arrive at the end of 2026. MMF MRTTs operate from the Main Base of Operations (MOB) the MMU and Eindhoven (Netherlands) y el Forward Operating Base (FOB) in cologne (Germany).
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