A400M - General Discussion

Some A400M being deployed to Mozambique following deadly cyclone Idai

Well, the A400 M is proving itself in the field as a very efficient carrier. For instance, the aircraft has deeply changed the operations of the French military air transport, and seems to be very successful with the RAF as well.

One issue, however, is that the A400 M is expected to perform so many different types of missions that Airbus is struggling to achieve all certifications required by the different customers (helicopter in-flight refueling is one of those still missing, paratroop dropping still cannot be performed from both sides at the same time ...).

Then, there are other types of problems. Some customers (Spain, Germany) have committed to ordering more aircraft that they now think they need, others suffer from budget shortages, while as always in international military programmes, costs have skyrocketed, compounding the problems and leading to difficult negotiations. All this doesn't help to stabilise production. Furthermore, this context is preventing Airbus from discounting the aircraft enough to attract new customers, since launch customers would insist to get the same prices ...

lots of paratroopers:)



excerpt from the above link:




www.journal-aviation.com/actualites/43177-l-a400m-largue-en-simultane#.XZtbaXjJ_jY.twitter