Luxembourg Armed Forces Takes Delivery of First
Airbus A400M
The Luxembourg Armed Forces has taken delivery of
its first Airbus A400M military transport aircraft.
After an initial stop in Luxembourg, the aircraft
will continue its journey to the 15th Wing Air Transport in
Melsbroek (Belgium), where the joint airlift unit between Belgium
and Luxembourg will be based.
With this delivery, Luxembourg becomes the
seventh A400M operator.
The aircraft, known as MSN104, will be operated by
the Luxembourg Armed Forces and Belgium within a bi-national unit,
together with the seven A400M ordered by Belgium, which is due to
receive its first aircraft in the coming weeks.
Alberto Gutierrez, Head of Military Aircraft at
Airbus Defence and Space, said, “I welcome Luxembourg to the
growing A400M user community. With 94 aircraft in service, the
A400M is increasingly becoming the air mobility backbone of our
customers, both in civil and military environments, as seen in
recent COVID-19 crisis missions around the globe.”
The A400M recently achieved additional
capabilities such as simultaneous paratrooper dispatch for a
maximum of 116 paratroopers using the side doors, automatic low
level flight in visual meteorological conditions (the only
military transport aircraft with this capability), and aerial
delivery and combat off-load that allows a single 16-tonne load to
be dropped automatically via parachute extraction.
In addition, 25 tonnes can be gravity dropped and the manual combat offload of up
to 19 tonnes on pallets (one pass) or 25 tonnes (two passes) on an
unpaved runway is possible, which is unprecedented. With regards
to helicopter air-to-air refuelling operations, the A400M recently
achieved the first successful wet contacts with a H225M
helicopter.
HD Video Tour of an Airbus A400M in Bangkok, Thailand
HD video tour of Grizzly 4, an Airbus A400M which was in Bangkok, Thailand, on 19 April 2012. The Airbus Military A400M
was in Thailand for the very first time, and took part in the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Royal Thai Air Force - "The Centennial of the RTAF Founding Fathers' Aviation". The visit
was the final leg of the A400M's first Asia Pacific Tour during
which it had already visited Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Chiang Mai before returning to Europe
after the stop in Bangkok. See more:
Pictures of the Airbus A400M (2 pages).
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