The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has celebrated a decade of operations with the Airbus A400M Atlas transport aircraft.
A ceremony to mark the occasion was held at RAF Brize Norton, the home of the RAF’s Air Mobility Force, on 14 November 2024.
“Since the first of the 22-strong fleet of aircraft was delivered to the Oxfordshire station on 17th November 2014, Atlas has repeatedly proven itself on a range of operations,” the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation of the UK Ministry of Defence stated in a 19 November press release. “It has become a vital asset to armed forces across the globe, demonstrating performance, adaptability and resilience in support of military and humanitarian missions alike.”
Operated by four RAF squadrons (XXIV, 30, LXX and 206) at RAF Brize Norton, an Atlas is also based in the Falkland Islands to provide maritime reconnaissance, search and rescue and medical evacuation cover in the South Atlantic. With the benefit of air-air refuelling, Atlas can also airdrop supplies in Antarctica.
On 3 July 2023 an RAF Atlas also carried out the longest-ever flight of the type, flying non-stop for 22 hours from RAF Brize Norton to Guam in the Pacific.
The A400M’s 37-tonne payload capacity and cargo-hold capability of up to 340 m3 enables the transportation of such sizeable equipment as a Chinook heavylift helicopter.
Group Captain Andrew McIntyre, Commander Air Wing, RAF Brize Norton, was quoted in the DE&S press release as saying that the Atlas “has consistently demonstrated superior strategic capabilities and versatility for the many challenging missions faced by the RAF. Its range, altitude, speed, payload and tactical performance has proven invaluable in humanitarian missions over the past 10 years, including the Caribbean, Afghanistan, Sudan, Middle East, not to mention protecting Europe’s eastern flank and life-saving rescue missions in the South Atlantic.”
The A400M suffered a somewhat protracted development phase, most notably due to technical problems in developing the aircraft’s Europrop TP400 powerplants. This led to a number of order cancellations, with the UK, for example, reducing its order from 25 aircraft to 22.
The aircraft’s maiden flight was conducted on 11 December 2009 out of the Airbus facility in Seville.
Although the first production A400M was delivered to the French Air Force in August 2013, the crash of an A400M on its first test flight out of Seville on 9 May 2015, the result of a faulty software update, led to further delivery delays and the temporary suspension of A400M flights.
However, after that incident was resolved the A400M went from strength to strength, with 178 examples of the type having now been ordered by the air forces of 10 countries: Germany, France, Spain, the UK, Turkey, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
