english:
PARIS - The production of the new Airbus transport aircraft, the A400M, is temporarily shut put. To that end, parent company EADS decided, writes the French newspaper Les Echos Tuesday (November 4). The first flight of the Airbus A400M has been postponed because the propeller system is not yet available . The production of the unit was meanwhile continuing.
To avoid many A400M from the factory rolls without the first flight took place, there is decided to stop the assembly , says Les Echos.
Meanwhile, two planes and put the last touches to third. Also at the assembly of number four and five is already underway.
PARIS - Airbus's flagship A400M military transport plane is facing a three-year delay, Le Figaro reported Feb. 10, adding an estimated five billion euros to its price tag.
The French daily cited confidential documents which said the plane, originally due for delivery this year, would not be available before the end of 2012.
"The test flight is planned for the beginning of 2010 and the first delivery at the end of 2012," the report said, quoting a confidential note from Airbus Military to OCCAR, the European organization for military cooperation that represents seven countries.
Deliveries had originally been scheduled to begin in 2009, but it is only in 2014 that Airbus' military subsidiary will be able to deliver significant numbers of the aircraft to clients, the newspaper reported.
The delay will cost Airbus dearly, with Le Figaro saying experts cited figures in the area of five billion euros ($6.4 billion), about the same as delays to the A380 superjumbo have cost the company.
The Financial Times Deutschland reported last month the A400M is overweight and cannot carry its designed payload, necessitating modifications.
The A400M is the most ambitious European military procurement program.
Begun in 2003, a total of 192 of the aircraft have been ordered so far for more than 20 billion euros.
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 10 Feb 06:21 EST (11:21 GMT)
Paris - The A400M will be four years late for operational duty, and France could cut orders for the airlifter as it looks for "gap fillers" to make up for the delay in delivery, procurement Chief Executive Laurent Collet-Billon said March 17.
An audit by OCCAR, the European arms agency, shows that the A400M's "operational delay" will be four years, Collet-Billon of the Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (DGA) said at a press conference on the DGA's 2008 results. That is longer than the three-year delay EADS previously announced.
EADS plans to deliver "a first aircraft after three years, with the second aircraft shipped after four years," Collet-Billon said.
EADS is the parent company of Airbus Military, prime contractor for the 20 billion euro ($25.9 billion) program to develop and produce the A400M transport plane for seven European countries.
An EADS spokesman declined to comment.
A "reduction in the target" of orders is one of the options under consideration, Collet-Billon said. There is, however, a threshold below which orders should not fall to ensure the program goes ahead. Cancellation is not an option. "This plane is indispensable," he said.
France has signed up for 50 A400Ms, making it the second-largest client after Germany, which ordered 60 units.
The French Air Force is considering all options for plugging the capability gap, including acquiring a foreign aircraft, bringing forward the A330 multirole tanker transport or leasing German Air Force C-160 Transall transports. "We are looking at all options," he said.
If the German Transalls are leased to the French Air Force, they would need modifications, an EADS executive has said.
Collet-Billon ruled out an interim acquisition of the C-130J because the plane is too small for the loads envisioned. He did not exclude procurement of the C-17 but stopped short of saying the U.S. plane is a possible temporary solution.
"We are looking at leasing certain types of aircraft through NATO," he said. "There are no taboos."
Boeing and Lockheed Martin executives told Defense News at February's IDEX arms show in Abu Dhabi that they have separately offered sale and lease of, respectively, one C-17 and the C-130J to Britain to fill the gap left by the A400M.
"One shouldn't get fixated by this delay," Reuters reported French Defense Minister Hervé Morin as saying. "What is certain is that we need this aircraft. We need to renew a part of our transport fleet that is very old."
Collet-Billon said the European customers are using a three-month contract standstill agreed to March 12 to adopt a position on new specifications, a timetable and parameters for the A400M.
Contract renegotiations will be complicated by clients' different needs. Britain and France require heavy airlift for the Afghan campaign, while Germany has operational life in its Transall fleet.
The A400M is designed as a multimission aircraft with a strategic range, flying larger loads than the C-130, and landing on unprepared landing strips. The most common requirement of European air forces is for hauling cargo rather than tactical missions under hostile conditions.
The contract negotiations are expected to include what specifications would be acceptable in the new delivery schedule. The plane also must pass civil certification, raising the bar for industry.
Collet-Billon said the French Air Force's Transall fleet is "at the end of its tether."
An industry executive said that with careful husbanding of the remaining flight hours, the French Transalls could survive the four-year delay.
EADS sent a letter in December to OCCAR, which manages the A400M contract for the seven European launch customers, saying the A400M would be delivered three years after first flight. But the company could not commit to a date for the maiden flight.
Collet-Billon said the A400M's engines are performing well in the flight test program.
Development of the full authority digital electronic control system, among other things, has held up the first flight, EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois said March 10.
The seven launch customers are Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey. Export contracts to Malaysia and South Africa are not thought to be at risk.
Defense News, Published: 17 Mar 15:00 EDT (19:00 GMT)
