Airbus A400M Atlas, concepts and other roles

[Thorvic]

Looks great ! What's the plan for the C-130J when you get all the A-400s ?

The A400Ms will replace the C130Js pretty much one for one.

As the RAF currently has 38 x C-130Js and it has 22 x A400Ms on order that'll be pretty difficult.

No we don't we only ordered 25 and one of those has been lost so its actually 24, we had 50 C-130K's and those were to be replaced by 50 A-400Ms, however given the usual Eurodelays post cold war we ordered 25 C-130J as a stopgap and dropped the A-400M requirement to 25.

The 22 Atlas should have replaced the C-130Ks but the C-17s have partially done that with their greater range and capacity so the K's have now recently retired.

It was mooted that the A400M would replace the C-130J, as there was talk of re-selling them on to NATO allies and re-rolling some of them as MPA aircraft, as the long term plan like most of the RAF types is to reduce types to lower training, servicing and maintenance costs.

I suspect the fate of the C-130J will be decided in the next SDSR in 2015 or 2020 as the trend for the previous flawed one was that with the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Germany we wouldn't need such a big Transport fleet and our new larger C-17/Atlas fleet would be more suited for the role as and when called upon.

The factor to remember is to see how the RAF get on with the new Atlas, they don't get to play with their new toy till the end of the month, and it will take a couple of years to fully evaluate its operational performance, its quirks and capabilities. They loved the C-130K, they found some issues with the C-130J that they can work around and we'll have to wait and see how they like the Atlas.

[PR19_Kit]

Erm, you want to try those numbers again?

The original order for A400Ms was for 25, but they cancelled 3 of them, which leaves 22. That's still not going to replace the flexibility of 38 C-130Js, is it, even though the overall lifting capability should be more?

[Logan Hartke]

The most recent AFM said that Mexico is looking at getting the A400M, a few for the Air Force and a few for the Navy. It also said that the Navy isn't so keen on it, considering it to be overkill and would rather get more C295Ms.

Anyway, I thought that was a pretty interesting potential user.

Cheers,

Logan

[kitnut617]

I think a lot of people don't realize just how big an A400M is, it's the same size almost as an Airbus A310, or a Short Belfast.  I wouldn't call it a C-130 replacement --- more of a complement to the C-130 fleet or a half way between the C-17 and C-130

[Thorvic]

Erm, you want to try those numbers again?

The original order for A400Ms was for 25, but they cancelled 3 of them, which leaves 22. That's still not going to replace the flexibility of 38 C-130Js, is it, even though the overall lifting capability should be more?

What 38 C-130J we only have 24 of them !!!, out of the 25 we ordered, You must be counting the now retired remaining C-130Ks to get that 38 figure ?

[Spey_Phantom]

here's a pic of the first Belgian A400M in the paintshop in Sevilla, Spain.
should be revieled soon  , screenshot from an Airbus video on Twitter.