The first Airbus A400M military transport plane has arrived at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. It is part of an order of 22 planes placed by the UK government. The new planes will replace the C-130s currently used by the RAF, but at double the capacity, only half the number of planes are required.
Despite a two-month delay in delivery, the A400Ms are expected to begin operational use by the original target of March 2015, with all of the planes in use by 2018.
A test batch of instructors are currently being trained to pilot the aircraft, ahead of 70 squadrons’ head instructors receiving their training starting in January 2015.
The new aircraft have created a total of 8,000 UK jobs, 900 of which are at Airbus’s Bristol facility, where the wings are designed and made.
Airbus’s executive vice-president of military aircraft, Domingo Urena Raso, expressed his pleasure at the delivery, and said: “Airbus Defence and Space is privileged to be the biggest provider of large aircraft to the RAF.”