Additional Airbus A330MRTT for NATO's Multinational MRTT Fleet
Airbus has received a firm order for an A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) from OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation / Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'ARmement; OCCAR), Europe’s organisation for the management of cooperative armament programmes.
The order, which OCCAR has placed on behalf of NATO’s Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA), follows the decision from Luxembourg to maximize its participation into the Multinational MRTT Fleet (MMF) programme with a significant increase from 200 to 1,200 the number of flight hours contracted. The aircraft is part of the three additional options originally included in the contract and will increase the MMF fleet to nine aircraft.
This new order follows the delivey of the first two aircraft (30 June and 10 August 2020). The third aircraft delivery, initially planned for Köln (Germany), will go to Eindhoven air base (the Netherlands) and is expected soon. The swap in delivery location is caused by the fact that the infrastructure at Koln is not ready yet.
The ninth aircraft will provide greater availability of the MMF fleet, enabling other NATO nations to cover their needs in air-to-air refuelling, strategic transport and medical evacuation.
The MMF programme is funded by lead nation the Netherlands and started in 2012. Luxembourg, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Czech Republic have also the exclusive right to operate the NATO–owned aircraft in a pooling arrangement, a prime example of European operational defence collaboration. The aircraft will be configured for in-flight refuelling, the transport of passengers and cargo, and medical evacuation operations.
The European Defence Agency (EDA) initiated the MMF programme, OCCAR manages the MMF acquisition phase as Contract Executing Agent on behalf of NSPA. Following the acquisition phase, NSPA will be responsible for the complete life-cycle management of the fleet. The fleet will be based at Eindhoven air base (the Netherlands) and Köln (Germany).