At the NATO Summit Defence Forum, the governments of Belgium, Croatia, France, Poland, Spain, Türkiye and the United Kingdom launched a High Visibility Project for the Airbus A400M.
The multinational initiative builds on the success of the Multinational MRTT Fleet (MMF) and aims to establish a Multinational Fleet centred on the Airbus A400M to address strategic airlift capability gaps among European allies.
Based on a pooling and sharing approach, the project envisions cooperation ranging from a jointly owned and operated A400M fleet to maintenance, training, infrastructure and procurement support. The initiative aims to better meet national and NATO requirements while enhancing capabilities including air-to-air refuelling, disaster relief, medical evacuation and firefighting.
“The selection of the A400M for this multinational fleet underlines its key strategic airlift capabilities. With more than 135 aircraft in operation and more than 270,000 flight hours achieved by the global fleet, the A400M has become the backbone of Air Mobility for the largest European NATO countries, and with its future capability roadmap, its role will become even more essential for decades to come,“ said Ben Bridge, Chairman Airbus Defence and Space in the UK.
Alongside the A400M initiative, NATO announced Finland’s accession to the Multinational MRTT Fleet, bringing the number of participating nations to nine: the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Czechia, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
With nine A330 MRTTs in operation from a total order of 12 aircraft, the MMF unit has already deployed to NATO’s Eastern Flank, supported civilian and refugee evacuations in Afghanistan, and participated in multinational exercises in the Indo-Pacific region.
