Airbus Military SL (AMSL) is a Spanish-registered company set up in 2003 to manage the design, development and marketing of the A400M, Europe's new military transport aircraft. It was originally established in 1999 as Airbus Military Company at a time when the Future Large Aircraft (FLA) project metamorphosed into the A400M upon acceptance by the contracting nations of a proposal for Europe's new tactical and strategic airlifter.

Airbus Military is an international consortium whose shareholders are Airbus; EADS-MTA, the military transport aircraft division of the European Aeronautics Defence and Space Company; TAI, the Turkish aeronautical industry; and FLABEL, a grouping of Belgian aerospace industries.

The A400M programme was launched in May 2003 with a single order for 180 aircraft from seven launch customer nations - Belgium; France; Germany; Luxembourg; Spain; Turkey and the United Kingdom.

In consideration of its considerable experience in managing complex, large aircraft programmes, Airbus has been tasked with the industrial development of the A400M, which will benefit from the Airbus centres of industrial excellence, a mature management structure and access to state-of-the-art aviation technology.

The production methodology adopted for the A400M is similar to that already in operation for the whole range of Airbus civil products, each risk-sharing industrial partner being wholly responsible for the elements, structures and sub-assemblies allocated to it. With the exception of specific military systems, which do not feature in the civil production organisation, the same centres of competence are used in both civil and military programmes. For example, the French industrial partner is responsible for nose fuselage, cockpit and systems; the German partner is responsibility for the fuselage and cargo loading system; the UK partner is responsible for the wings; and so on.

The A400M programme counts two additional programme partners in South Africa and Malaysia, both of whom have committed to purchase A400M airlifters and whose national industries participate fully in the design and construction of major components.

To date the nine participating nations have committed to 192 A400M aircraft and it is expected that there is market potential for a further 200 – 300 aircraft worldwide as the aging military transports in service today are gradually phased out. This conservative market forecast does not include the USA, China or the ex USSR.

The need for greater airlift capacity for humanitarian, peace-keeping and peace-making operations has been recognised for some time by the majority of the world's air forces. Recent events such as the 2004 tsunami in the far-east and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have only served to reinforce the need.

Today's military transports are either old-design tactical transports or very large strategic airlifters of the Cold War era. The tactical transports are no longer adequate to carry the increasingly big and heavy equipment on many military inventories and the strategic airlifters are expensive and of limited availability. For these reasons, and as a consequence of the shrinking defence budgets available in many countries, the European Staff Requirement (ESR) called for a cost-effective solution in an aircraft that would undertake both tactical and strategic roles. The A400M is the aircraft that has been selected to fulfil that requirement and, since all military and humanitarian missions tend to be of the same nature, wherever they take place, the A400M is likely to become the standard for the future; a cost-effective aircraft that bridges the Tactical / Strategic airlift gap.

www.airbusmilitary.com

Airbus Military SL
15 Avenue Didier Daurat
31707 Blagnac
France

Airbus Military SL
404 Avenida Aragon
28022 Madrid
Spain

 

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