EQUIPMENT / AIRBUS <<


It may have been a long time coming and at one stage the Airbus A400M transport aircraft was nearly cancelled. But with the test programme well-advanced the A400M is due in service with seven air forces in the next two years.


PREVIOUSLY KNOWN as A400M, the Atlas has been officially named and will join the Royal Air Force in two years’ time to help provide the UK military’s future air transport force. Air Marshal Sir Kevin Leeson, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Chief of Materiel (Air), said: “Atlas will take over from the C-130 Hercules, which has been a huge success and a valuable asset for our Armed Forces for decades – the workhorse of the RAF. Atlas will be a superbly versatile performer with strategic reach and speed and impressive tactical qualities. It will be a valuable


winter 2012_13 | globaldefencemedia.com


addition to the RAF’s future stable of aircraft.” Atlas aircraft will, along with the Voyager and C-17, provide the UK military’s future air transport force. The UK is buying 22 of the aircraft from Airbus Military and the first Atlas is expected to be delivered to the RAF in 2014. Atlas will be able to carry twice as much as the Hercules and can transport 32 tonnes of cargo over a range of 4,500 km, providing unprecedented capability to support the UK Armed Forces. It can move up to 116 paratroopers, large armoured vehicles, such as Mastiffs, as well as vast amounts of humanitarian and disaster relief. The aircraft’s


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