Europe’s grand plan for a military airlifter is at risk of coming undone
Printed headline: Trials and Tribulations
EADS and Airbus are not only seeking years more time to complete A400M development, but additional financial support as well. Industry likely has one final opportunity to rescue the program before the patience of at least some partner nations is exhausted.
Senior Airbus executives warn that they are unwilling to carry on with the A400M as presently structured.
“We want to continue the program, but in a way that ensures success,” says CEO Tom Enders. “With the current contractual and organizational set-up we will not get there. This is a ‘mission impossible.’”
Tom Williams, Airbus executive vice president for programs, concurs: “We think it would be irresponsible to continue on the current track.” According to Williams, the program needs to be placed on a “realistic, solid footing in terms of schedule, organization and financially.”..
As yet, Airbus has no estimate of how much more could be required for the program. Williams says the company has “no idea on the cost to complete,” adding that the priority is to conclude the ongoing program assessment.
When launched, the A400M was trumpeted as a military development on a civil aircraft timescale, an approach that has proved fundamentally flawed.
There are obvious signs of exasperation among the seven core partners following EADS’s proposal that production delivery of the aircraft not begin until three years from first flight, which had been scheduled for November 2007. The latest proposed slippage, according to British Defense Minister John Hutton, is “unacceptable.”
“We cannot accept a three- or four-year delay in the delivery of those aircraft. That would impose an unnecessary, unacceptable strain on our air assets,” Hutton said in response to a question in Parliament. “We, along with all our partner nations, will have to consider very carefully what the right response to the problem is.”..
While the immediate focus for the delay is on the lack of a flightworthy full-authority digital engine control system for the prototype aircraft, [EADS CEO Louis] Gallois claims that EADS, its suppliers and the customers “completely underestimated the nature of the program . . . .We thought it was a flying truck.”
Development of the TP400-D6 turboprop engine, in general, has been a cause of delay, though questions about the aircraft’s propulsion have also served to mask other problem areas in the A400M program...
France was originally due to introduce the aircraft into service at the end of 2009, though now 2012 seems probable. Production ramp-up for the A400M is also likely to be slowed, leading to fewer early delivery slots. The RAF may have to wait until 2014-15.
The Defense Ministry is already in discussions over additional Boeing C-17 and Lockheed Martin C-130J transport aircraft as it considers how to address the capability gap left by the latest A400M lags. The RAF has six C-17s, and its fleet could now grow to nine or 10 [emphasis added]...
