A330MRTT News, Orders, Production And Testing

Nicoeddf · Fri Jun 09, 2017 9:30 pm

Stitch wrote:
moo wrote:
Thats a plus for Germany, but its not a plus for Airbus, and my point is that Airbus may not want to get into bed with Germany on something else that they can complain about...

So what, Germany buys the KC-46A?

Luftwaffe would be equally annoying buying US stuff.

Man it's really no fun working with them. It's just not a professional environment.

mjoelnir · Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:49 am

Stitch wrote:
moo wrote:
Thats a plus for Germany, but its not a plus for Airbus, and my point is that Airbus may not want to get into bed with Germany on something else that they can complain about...

So what, Germany buys the KC-46A?

Can not do, impossible to buy something that never gets finished.

KarelXWB · Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:36 pm

Norway and Germany join the European tanker pool:

Norway, Germany sign MOU to join European refueling plane fleet using Airbus A330 tankers -- fleet to grow to 7 planes

https://twitter.com/R_Wall/status/880413892656209920

KarelXWB · Thu Jun 29, 2017 3:20 pm

And here is the press release:

Germany and Norway officially joined the European/NATO program to acquire Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft along with Netherlands and Luxembourg.

...

The first two aircraft have already been ordered to be delivered from Airbus Defence and Space’s tanker conversion line at Getafe near Madrid in 2020. Five additional aircraft will now be ordered, and that order will include options for up to four further aircraft.

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-re ... bourg.html

JetBuddy · Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:32 pm

KarelXWB wrote:
And here is the press release:

Germany and Norway officially joined the European/NATO program to acquire Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft along with Netherlands and Luxembourg.

...

The first two aircraft have already been ordered to be delivered from Airbus Defence and Space’s tanker conversion line at Getafe near Madrid in 2020. Five additional aircraft will now be ordered, and that order will include options for up to four further aircraft.

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-re ... bourg.html

Great news. The Norwegian Ministry of Defense made the decision a while back, but now it's formal. Seems like a great deal for smaller nations that need this capacity, but maintaining a small fleet of tanker-transports would be very expensive. I suppose the arrangement is very similar to the Strategic Airlift Capability operating the C-17s out of Papa Air Base in Hungary.

Slug71 · Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:47 pm

Good news indeed. I think there's a good chance that the 4 options will be taken up. Plus additional.

Mortyman · Sat Jul 01, 2017 9:06 pm

Defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of the Netherlands, Defence minister Ursula von der Leyen of Germany, Secretary of State for Defense Francine Closener of Luxembourg and Defence minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide of Norway at signing

Dutchy · Sat Jul 01, 2017 11:55 pm

Will they all be based at Eindhoven?

Joolde · Thu Jul 06, 2017 12:11 pm

Dutchy wrote:
Will they all be based at Eindhoven?

4 at Eindhoven, 3 in Germany https://www.defensie.nl/organisatie/luc ... -transport (in Dutch)

Dutchy · Thu Jul 06, 2017 12:33 pm

Joolde wrote:
Dutchy wrote:
Will they all be based at Eindhoven?

4 at Eindhoven, 3 in Germany https://www.defensie.nl/organisatie/luc ... -transport (in Dutch)

Thanks. So Belgium in 2018 will join, or sign a MOU at least. There should be more than seven craft. Where in Germany will they be based?

Investment for The Netherlands is within the bandwidth of 250m - 1bn (!), no shit, Ministry of Defense

mjoelnir · Fri Jul 07, 2017 10:13 am

Dutchy wrote:
Joolde wrote:
Dutchy wrote:
Will they all be based at Eindhoven?

4 at Eindhoven, 3 in Germany https://www.defensie.nl/organisatie/luc ... -transport (in Dutch)

Thanks. So Belgium in 2018 will join, or sign a MOU at least. There should be more than seven craft. Where in Germany will they be based?

Investment for The Netherlands is within the bandwidth of 250m - 1bn (!), no shit, Ministry of Defense

The current 4 German A310MRTT are stationed at CGN, Wahn airbase. The frames are also used for transport operations as well as for the German government and are part of the EATC fleet.

mffoda · Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:23 pm

Mortyman wrote:

Defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of the Netherlands, Defence minister Ursula von der Leyen of Germany, Secretary of State for Defense Francine Closener of Luxembourg and Defence minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide of Norway at signing

Cool pic... But

Better pic! :biggrin:

(from Wikimedia)

GDB · Fri Jul 07, 2017 5:31 pm

Well this long range shot (airbase perimeter in Italy) cannot match the above for clarity, however when seeing it 6 years ago, I thought 'a 21st Century Boudica getting into a modern chariot'.
(Or in reality, Flt Lt Helen Seymour RAF).

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article ... 025552.jpg

Heavierthanair · Sun Jul 09, 2017 2:18 pm

G'day

With the German air force being able to keep about a tenth of whatever they have bought operational that would be good news for Airbus. Say they need 5 tankers available reliably for vital operations they would have to order 50 units to achieve that goal, close to one year A330 production at present rates. Clearly they will blame Airbus for all their maintenance, logistics, political and other problems as they are doing with the A400, their choppers and whatever else they try to keep flying. Seems to me that no one else flying those same aircraft has problems to the same extent. The Germans even complain about the performance of the H+K rifles they bought and accepted per their own specifications (after years of usage they detected the rifles become less accurate as the barrel gets hot / has anyone heard of a gun where that is not the case?) - err, that's the army of course and not the air force. :crazy:

Rant over. :white:

Cheers

Peter

WIederling · Mon Jul 10, 2017 6:56 am

Heavierthanair wrote:
G'day

One person: Ulla von der Lügen.

US think tank aligned and busy spending each of her changing ministries budget on PR to vie people into thinking that she does good work.
and additionally completely "Belehrungsresistent." ( no wonder: that would take away from her underhanded hidden agenda.)

KarelXWB · Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:01 pm

First French Air Force A330 MRTT (MSN 1735) completed conversion work at Getafe:

https://twitter.com/AirbusDefence/statu ... 5976403968

KarelXWB · Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:24 pm

Former QF VH-EBH has been converted to MRTT:

RAAF MRTT039 (A39-006) by galenburrows, on Flickr

Slug71 · Thu Sep 07, 2017 7:25 pm

Does the MRTT also go through all the rework like the KC-46A? EMP hardening etc?

KarelXWB · Wed Sep 13, 2017 2:37 pm

Another angle of the first French Air Force A330 MRTT during a test flight above Toulouse:

First French MRTT by José Luis Celada Euba, on Flickr

Dutchy · Wed Sep 13, 2017 9:31 pm

Which aircraft of the French Airforce uses a boom? E-3? More? Or did they order it with a boom to be more flexible for other NATO a/c.

KarelXWB · Mon Sep 25, 2017 2:15 pm

Firm order has been signed:

Madrid, 25 September 2017 – Airbus Defence and Space has received a firm order for five Airbus A330 MRTT Multi Role Tanker Transports from Europe’s organisation for the management of cooperative armament programmes – OCCAR – on behalf of NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) and funded by Germany and Norway.

The order follows the announcement on 29 June of a Memorandum of Understanding under which the two nations would join Netherlands and Luxembourg in the European/NATO Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF) programme.

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-re ... order.html

Aviaponcho · Mon Sep 25, 2017 2:54 pm

Slug71 wrote:
Does the MRTT also go through all the rework like the KC-46A? EMP hardening etc?

France is a nuclear weapon nation & air delivery is one option along sea launches ICBM

Nuclear Weapon plane delivery will be done with the support of the MRTT, so we can imagine that they will be at least a little hardened

Mortyman · Tue Sep 26, 2017 8:40 am

KarelXWB wrote:
Firm order has been signed:

Madrid, 25 September 2017 – Airbus Defence and Space has received a firm order for five Airbus A330 MRTT Multi Role Tanker Transports from Europe’s organisation for the management of cooperative armament programmes – OCCAR – on behalf of NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) and funded by Germany and Norway.

The order follows the announcement on 29 June of a Memorandum of Understanding under which the two nations would join Netherlands and Luxembourg in the European/NATO Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF) programme.

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-re ... order.html

Excellent. where will these be located ? I assume not in Norway .... :-(

Ugly51 · Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:19 am

Mortyman wrote:

Defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert of the Netherlands, Defence minister Ursula von der Leyen of Germany, Secretary of State for Defense Francine Closener of Luxembourg and Defence minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide of Norway at signing

They are some of NATO/OTAN......

Kiwirob · Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:59 pm

Mortyman wrote:
KarelXWB wrote:
Firm order has been signed:

Madrid, 25 September 2017 – Airbus Defence and Space has received a firm order for five Airbus A330 MRTT Multi Role Tanker Transports from Europe’s organisation for the management of cooperative armament programmes – OCCAR – on behalf of NATO Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) and funded by Germany and Norway.

The order follows the announcement on 29 June of a Memorandum of Understanding under which the two nations would join Netherlands and Luxembourg in the European/NATO Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF) programme.

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-re ... order.html

Excellent. where will these be located ? I assume not in Norway ....

They have options for another 4, plus the 2 already ordered by the Netherlands and I believe Belgium will pick up another 2, Europe is going to be well covered by MRTT's. I'm sure Germany will ultimately buy additional frames for itself as well.

Mortyman · Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:50 pm

Do these aircraft have some sort of defence system installed ? I assume only flares if anything at all ?

mjoelnir · Thu Sep 28, 2017 4:08 pm

Kiwirob wrote:
Mortyman wrote:
KarelXWB wrote:
Firm order has been signed:

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-re ... order.html

Excellent. where will these be located ? I assume not in Norway ....

They have options for another 4, plus the 2 already ordered by the Netherlands and I believe Belgium will pick up another 2, Europe is going to be well covered by MRTT's. I'm sure Germany will ultimately buy additional frames for itself as well.

Germany is in the process of integrating some of their capabilities with other countries forces, the German Seebataillon (marines) is integrated into the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps Command. Or German forces integrate other countries forces for example the integrated I. German/Dutch Corps is a rapid response force. There are examples of working cooperation between German and Danish and German and Czech forces.

I would imagine any further acquisition of tankers by Germany will be done through this European tanker cooperation.

Slug71 · Thu Sep 28, 2017 5:55 pm

Mortyman wrote:
Do these aircraft have some sort of defence system installed ? I assume only flares if anything at all ?

I would think flares at minimum with a more sophisticated system at least offered or else installed by the customer.
I read a while ago that the MRTT may be getting Command and Control / COMINT / ELINT (ISR) capabilities which i'm sure will require a good defense system among other upgrades like EMP/EMF hardening (if it doesn't already have this) among others like ECM.

http://www.sldinfo.com/tanker-2-0-the-a ... bal-fleet/

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... li-434688/

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ng-426581/

The aircraft is definitely big enough to do a lot more than it can. With the palletized mission systems (like used on the C-295) that can be easily and quickly switched out, there is a lot of potential in this bird.
When production is eventually switched to the -800NEO, Airbus should IMO add a weapons bay (for MPA role, and/other munitions) too.

scbriml · Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:39 pm

Slug71 wrote:
When production is eventually switched to the -800NEO, Airbus should IMO add a weapons bay (for MPA role, and/other munitions) too.

I can't help thinking the A332/338 is way too big of a platform for an MPA role.

Slug71 · Thu Sep 28, 2017 11:26 pm

scbriml wrote:
Slug71 wrote:
When production is eventually switched to the -800NEO, Airbus should IMO add a weapons bay (for MPA role, and/other munitions) too.

I can't help thinking the A332/338 is way too big of a platform for an MPA role.

Absolutely. I'm thinking more for multi-role. Either transitioning between roles or being able to carry out multiple roles simultaneously. Keep in mind, the weapons bay could be used to deliver land strike and carry other missiles like the P-8 too.

Ozair · Fri Sep 29, 2017 1:48 am

Slug71 wrote:
Mortyman wrote:
Do these aircraft have some sort of defence system installed ? I assume only flares if anything at all ?

I would think flares at minimum with a more sophisticated system at least offered or else installed by the customer.

RAAF KC-30s have a DIRCM installed.

angad84 · Sun Oct 01, 2017 9:12 pm

Ozair wrote:
Slug71 wrote:
Mortyman wrote:
Do these aircraft have some sort of defence system installed ? I assume only flares if anything at all ?

I would think flares at minimum with a more sophisticated system at least offered or else installed by the customer.

RAAF KC-30s have a DIRCM installed.

Instead of or in addition to flare/chaff countermeasures?

Ozair · Sun Oct 01, 2017 9:52 pm

angad84 wrote:
Ozair wrote:
Slug71 wrote:

I would think flares at minimum with a more sophisticated system at least offered or else installed by the customer.

RAAF KC-30s have a DIRCM installed.

Instead of or in addition to flare/chaff countermeasures?

They also have flare dispensers, not sure about chaff as I am not aware if the KC-30 in RAAF service has an ALR installed.

KarelXWB · Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:20 am

Lufthansa Technik has developed new cabin concepts for the A330 MRTT: a "governor" interior, a "rescue" interior, a "state" interior and a "trooper" interior.

See https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ct-443130/

Pics: https://50skyshades.com/news/maintenanc ... -a330-mrtt

KarelXWB · Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:36 am

MSN 1830, the first A330 to be converted for the OCCAR, on a test flight earlier this month:

https://flic.kr/p/21ycehW

WIederling · Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:14 pm

KarelXWB wrote:
Lufthansa Technik has developed new cabin concepts for the A330 MRTT: a "governor" interior, a "rescue" interior, a "state" interior and a "trooper" interior.

See https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ct-443130/

Pics: https://50skyshades.com/news/maintenanc ... -a330-mrtt

Who did the quick change interiors for the A310 MRT before they got the second "T"?
ref: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A3 ... TT_MedEvac

KarelXWB · Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:11 am

MSN 1808 has been ferried to Spain for tanker conversion.

Airbus A330 -243(MRTT) 1808 . Armée de l´Air ferried 18dec17 TLS-LEGT, EC-reg for MRTT conversion ex EC-338

KarelXWB · Sat Dec 23, 2017 10:24 am

Belgium orders another MRTT.

Belgium will invest 258 million euros ($305.8 million) in a air-to-air refueling plane to expand European defense capacity, the Belgium ministry of defense said on Friday.

The investment will increase the number of European tanker planes to eight from seven and is part of a 2012 project to improve Europe’s capacity in this regard.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belg ... SKBN1EG1FB

KarelXWB · Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:20 am

South Korea's second MRTT (MSN 1848) has been spotted in TLS. It will be ferried to Spain for tanker conversion later this year.

Airbus A330 MRTT Republic of Korea by Jujug Spotting, on Flickr

KarelXWB · Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:21 am

And more orders have been added to the backlog:

Airbus closed 2017 with the formal receipt of an order for five A330-200s to be adapted to the multirole tanker/transport (MRTT) configuration to equip a future pooled European fleet.

Confirmed as Airbus announced its commercial orders data for last month on 15 January, the order – from the company's defence unit – increases to seven the number of A330 MRTTs to be acquired under a multinational initiative championed by the European Defence Agency.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... og-444893/

KarelXWB · Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:32 pm

Singapore's first A330 MRTT (MSN 1667) finished tanker conversion and was ferried to Manching in Germany for paint.

http://militaryaviationreview.com/first ... r-painting

AngMoh · Thu Jan 25, 2018 8:55 am

KarelXWB wrote:
Singapore's first A330 MRTT (MSN 1667) finished tanker conversion and was ferried to Manching in Germany for paint.

http://militaryaviationreview.com/first ... r-painting

So will it be on time to make an appearance at the Singapore Airshow (5-9 Feb)?

KarelXWB · Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:00 am

AngMoh wrote:
So will it be on time to make an appearance at the Singapore Airshow (5-9 Feb)?

Good question. It's not impossible, though I'm not familiar with the schedule.

zeke · Thu Jan 25, 2018 3:26 pm

If it does go it would not be as an RSAF aircraft, acceptance testing will take some time.

cumulushumilis · Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:43 pm

bunumuring wrote:
Quoting Stitch (Reply 47):Which way do you think Canada will eventually go? New or converted A330s? New Pegasus'? Converted 767s (ex-AC even)? Hand-me-downs from the US? That will be an interesting one to watch in the future!

Cheers,
Bunumuring.

My guess will be new builds and most likely A330s of some sort. Who knows? The way Canadian government procurement works, it could be anything.

KarelXWB · Tue Feb 20, 2018 4:26 pm

First Singapore A330 MRTT has been painted:

Singapore Air Force KC-30A by Rami Khanna-Prade, on Flickr

angad84 · Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:43 pm

God-DAMN that is a fine looking jet. If they gotta be grey, that's the grey I want!

5427247845 · Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:05 pm

angad84 wrote:
God-DAMN that is a fine looking jet. If they gotta be grey, that's the grey I want!

Noray · Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:45 pm

angad84 wrote:
God-DAMN that is a fine looking jet. If they gotta be grey, that's the grey I want!

Would you still say the same if the photographer had corrected the underexposure caused by shooting into the bright sky? The perceived shade of grey in a photograph depends on:
a.) the paint
b.) intensity and color of light
c.) the surrounding colors
d.) length of exposure, white balance, ISO and aperture values
In other words: The grey you want may be ephemeral. Don't judge it before you've seen some more images shot under different condtions.

angad84 · Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:15 pm

Dude you can tell right off the bat that it's a dark grey. I think I've shot enough to know.

Other photos confirm it.

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