Posted on 11/20/2014 8:06:16 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
France has confirmed the selection of 12 Airbus A330 refueling tankers for the French Air Force, Airbus Group said on Thursday.
First delivery is expected in 2018, followed by a second in 2019 and then at a rate of one or two per year, Airbus Defense & Space said in a statement.
India and Qatar are in the "final stages of contractual negotiations" for six and two aircraft respectively, Airbus said.
Airbus said France is the sixth country to order the tanker after Australia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Britain.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Well, they need to get back from wherever they are quickly.
Can they refuel when in reverse?
France buying Airbus? So?
Their goal is force projection, only to where?
Meanwhile, our USAF is still flying tankers almost as old as our B-52 bombers because Boeing got Congress to overrule buying the Airbus tanker. Boeing lost the head to head comparison bid to the Airbus tanker a number of years back. Airbus was willing to buy a lot of US parts & engines for the tankers to make US companies happy.
We should have bought them for our airforce. Nationalism trumped reason.
why does France buying 12 aerial tankers?
seems excessive for them
what are all the windows for?
it’s a tanker-transport (Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT))
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A330_MRTT
Basically if you fill up the lower half of the plane with gas you are already are pushing the max it can carry. It could not carry both top and bottom fully full of gas.... so you might as well get some double use out of the top by carrying cargo that is less dense, or passengers.
And surprise! Boeing is falling behind in the design and fabrication of the first test article KC-46As.
“And surprise! Boeing is falling behind in the design and fabrication of the first test article KC-46As.”
Here are the latest KC-46 news:
http://www.examiner.com/article/boeing-not-meeting-production-dates-for-kc-46a-refueling-tankers
http://www.janes.com/article/45947/further-tanker-schedule-slips-could-derail-key-milestones-says-usaf
South Korea is also looking for 4 new tankers:
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20141123000329
Delivery is scheduled for 2017.
Several points pro MRTT:
- maintenance: Korean Airlines operates already 24 A330 and has 8 more on order.
- spare parts: the A330 is still in production while no airline has the 767 on order. Delta ordered 25 A330-900.
- operational: Australia is already refueling over Iraq.
- better small airfield performance: The MRTT can take off with more fuel from short runways than the 767-200. The 767-2C fuselage is even longer than the standard 767-200.
- pride: the MRTT is far bigger than Japanese KC-767
Not to mention the possibility of adding the A330neo advantages to the MRTT. Even lower fuel burn = more offloadable fuel available.
Even the current A330CEO offers a raised MTOW by 9 t over the old former MRTT offer to US Air Force. The MTOW is now 242 t instead of 233 t. Even an A330CEO with NEO wings could reduce the fuel burn by a few percents.
An A330MRTT-NEO could be a sufficient KC-10 replacement. The fuel load is just 45 t more for KC-10 but the fuel burn rate is much higher. About 4 to 5 t per hour more than an A330NEO.
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/usaf/docs/afpam10-1403.htm (For A330 us B767)
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