The United Kingdom will forego the purchase of additional A400M transport aircraft

In early January, it was reported that the Royal Air Force [RAF] It was seriously considering strengthening its A400M transport fleet in line with the recommendations of the Strategic Defense and Security Review published by London in March 2021. UK Ministry of Defence [MoD] A month later.

The number of additional aircraft ordered from Airbus was not formally specified. However, according to Janes, there has been talk of a £750m envelope to finance such a purchase. Enough to acquire eight additional aircraft, which would have increased the British fleet of A400M to 30 aircraft.

Such an order seemed logical when the RAF was to part with its 14 C-130J Hercules from 2023 and planned to keep them in service beyond the 2030s.

“It will be with a heavy heart that we retire the C-130 in two years because it’s a workhorse. But I have every confidence in the A400M and what this aircraft can do in the future,” said RAF Chief of Staff Air Chief after the August 2021 flight set to evacuate Kabul. Marshal Mike Wixton said the A400M was “real capable and enormously capable. […] It flies very high and fast. And it has a larger payload than the C-130J,” he added.

Only the war in Ukraine has changed the order of priorities… and, above all, given the economic problems of the United Kingdom, British military spending should not progress as quickly as announced, and the target of 3% of GDP by 2030 can be reached under current conditions. Also, MoD’s budget Does not increase In 2023… and it may even decrease in absolute value.

Also, according to the National Audit Office report [NAO]Released on November 30, the idea of ​​acquiring more A400Ms is said to be on the verge of being abandoned.

“The option to purchase additional A400M aircraft is unaffordable,” the document says, asking the RAF to improve the availability of its transport aircraft to offset the effects of such a decision.

According to statistics Recently mentioned According to Air Force Technology, the RAF’s 21 A400Ms had 60 to 70% availability from March 1, 2021, to September 1, 2022, meaning on average at least 13 aircraft were ready to take off at any given time.

As a reminder, the United Kingdom initially intended to purchase 25 A400Ms at the start of the program. But the target was reduced to 22 copies in 2010 to cover additional costs incurred due to difficulties in developing the aircraft.