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AN ORDER FOR THE A400M AT LAST?

In the run-up to the Paris air show, the suspense surrounding the issue as to when a firm order will finally be placed for the Airbus A400M is high. Having dragged on for years and with countless postponements and declarations of intent that have led to nothing, the programme to build the European military transporter is now closer to launch than ever before, according to the official view in the industry. At the time of going to press in the middle of May an EADS spokesman stated that the company was confident that the nine participating governments would be ready to sign a contract in June.

Realistically, however, there is little expectation of anything more than a new Memorandum of Understanding confirming the numbers to be bought. Spokesmen at the German ministry of defence were expecially cautious. In May we were told there was as yet neither a final intergovernmental agreement nor a fully negotiated contract with industry. And as for the critical question of financing, the spokesman had no comment to make.

It is not just the Federal Republic of Germany that is finding it difficult to fit this major new arms programme into a defence budget that is already bursting at the seams. In Italy it is not yet clear what effect the elections held on 13 May will have. Then there is the economic crisis in Turkey which has already made it necessary to pare down the numbers from 26 to 20. Meanwhile the United Kingdom may have the resources to pay for the A400M, but the Royal Air Force's requirement is so pressing that the government is losing patience and could opt out.

If one then considers the petty jealousies regarding the various work packages of the programme - despite the avowed "commercial approach", the individual partner countries are expecting work packages to be commensurate with the quantity they are ordering - it is easy to imagine the difficulties that have beset negotiations in recent months.

Nevertheless it seems that significant progress had been made as of the middle of May. 90 % of the contract detail had been finalised, it was said, and the configuration of the A400M had also been frozen. As one would expect, agreement has been reached initially on a baseline design. According to the manufacturer, this will have "a very high standard of equipment" and be "fully deployable on tactical operations".

Nevertheless, there is an option list that contains around 30 items such as, for example, an overhead crane to facilitate loading, an improved navigation system for low-altitude flight down to 50 m and in-flight refuelling pods below the wings. On the other hand, an in-flight refuelling probe is to be fitted to the front of the fuselage as standard.

As for the engine, the use of the TP400 turboshaft was agreed last November. The decision by Airbus Military in favour of a joint bid from MTU, Snecma, Rolls-Royce, Fiat Avio and Techspace Aero was admittedly politically motivated, but apparently it does not carry any technical penalties. "All offers were close together," according to Airbus.

However, Airbus concedes that this engine, which will produce at least 10,000 shp (7500 kW), is the critical point of the programme, irrespective of the fact that components from different existing engines are to be combined into a new three-shaft design.

Airbus Military is still standing to a unit price of around EUR 80 million. This implies a total cost for 223 aircraft of roughly EUR 18 billion, plus options, spare parts etc. The price already includes the development costs, to which industry is to contribute EUR 1.5 billion.

The payment arrangements will be a separate and difficult issue. They are supposed to be geared to programme progress and delivery dates, but for many countries first deliveries will not be until some time after 2010. On the government side, the programme will be managed by the international procurement agency OCCAR. However, an Interim International Programme Office (IIPO) set up at the beginning of the year in Toulouse is currently leading the negotiations.

If the green light for development and production of the A400M should be given in Le Bourget and contracts with industry are finally signed over the next few months, then Airbus Military is saying that the first aircraft will be delivered in the second half of 2007. "Once the contract has been signed, we need exactly 71 months through to certification. Of this, 51 months will go on development through to the maiden flight and 20 months on test flights," Adolfo Revuelta, programme manager at EADS Military Transport Aircraft, said recently. Airbus is not expecting any problems regarding engineering resources. Development work on the A380 programme is scheduled to peak earlier, while on the Eurofighter front most of the design work is already finished, he said.

The Royal Air Force was not prepared to wait indefinitely for the others to make a firm commitment to the A400M. It has therefore not only introduced 25 new C-130J Hercules from Lockheed Martin, but also leased four of the C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifters from Boeing. The aircraft, which have been diverted from production intended for the US Air Force, are to be delivered no later than 30 June, 31 July, 31 August 30 September 2000.

Boeing is currently in advance of this schedule. It was expected that the first C-17 would arrive at RAF Brize Norton, where they are to be operated by the newly established 99 Squadron, 0n 23 May. In any case its first flight took place in Long Beach on 16 April.

However, supplying the United Kingdom is a pretty modest success for the C-17. The airlifter has a flyaway price of $175 million (DM 385 million, at 1996 prices!), so that it remains out of reach for virtually all potential foreign customers. The efforts of Boeing and the USAF to sell ten Globemasters to civilian freight airlines as the BC-17X, enticing them with a utilisation guarantee, evidently fell on barren ground. So Boeing must be hoping that the Pentagon will be able to force through the purchase of another 60 C-17's before long.

Lockheed Martin could also do with more orders for its C-130J. However, that will be difficult as the reputation of the new Hercules model has become somewhat tarnished. Its launch customers were annoyed by the considerable delivery slippages and only last year the aircraft flopped during USAF operational tests.

The most serious problems are now to be fixed with a software upgrade (Block 5.3) which constitutes the new standard and will gradually be installed on the C-130J's that have already been delivered. Again, according to the USAF, logistical support is slowly reaching an acceptable level. 111 aircraft have been sold to date.

If one can believe reports from Kiev, the Antonov An-70 has meanwhile finally won its first firm order. The Ukrainian defence ministry has ordered five aircraft - a start, at any rate. Meanwhile repairs to a prototype which was seriously damaged during an emergency landing in January near Omsk are making good progress. The work was expected to be completed at the end of May.

According to the accident investigators the cause of the accident was a broken hydraulics line. As a result the rear propeller of engine no 3 moved out of position during start-up into reverse thrust, causing violent vibrations and airflow separation on the wing. When the crew selected full power on the remaining engines, the flight control system incorrectly registered that engine no. 1 was overloaded, causing it to be automatically shut down. Modifications are intended to eliminate the possibility of such an accident occurring again.

From page 56 of FLUG REVUE 7/2001