RNLAF buys two A330MRTT's with Luxembourg

[hdehaan]

Zojuist op de AD.nl site:

Luchtmacht koopt nieuwe tankvliegtuigen

De Luchtmacht heeft vanmiddag samen met Luxemburg twee nieuwe tankvliegtuigen aangeschaft. Het gaat om een speciaal uitgevoerde airbus A330. Jachtvliegers kunnen hiermee hun tank al vliegend volgooien. Ook kan defensie er vracht, passagiers en ernstig gewonde militairen mee vervoeren.

Nu vliegt defensie nog met de KDC-10, maar dat toestel is toe aan vervanging. Met het nieuwe toestel kan defensie meer typen vliegtuigen aftanken, kunnen er 270 passagiers worden vervoerd - 65 meer dan nu het geval is - en kunnen ernstig gewonde militairen in een complete intensive care-unit worden overgebracht.

Miljoenen
Nederland betaalt maximaal 1 miljard euro voor de order. Een flink bedrag erkent defensie, maar het is de verwachting dat er nog een flinke korting wordt bedongen. België, Duitsland, Polen en Noorwegen overwegen om ook dezelfde tanktoestellen te kopen. Als zij dat doen delen zij mee in de kosten voor de ontwikkeling en kan de prijs voor Nederland zakken tot minimaal 250 miljoen euro.

Samenwerking
Dat Nederland samen met Luxemburg in het project stapt is bijzonder. Luxemburg heeft zelf geen luchtmacht en zal dus zelf niet van de tankcapaciteit gebruik maken. Volgens een woordvoerster van het ministerie van Defensie wil Luxemburg met deze investering bijdragen aan de schaarse tankcapaciteit van de NAVO. Europa is daarvoor nu vooral afhankelijk van de Amerikanen.

Het is de bedoeling om de tankvliegtuigen uiteindelijk te delen met alle NAVO-landen. Zo hoeft niet elk land zelf de peperdure tankvliegtuigen te kopen, maar kan de beschikbare capaciteit worden gedeeld. Dat scheelt aanzienlijk in de jaarlijkse kosten.

In English (summed): According a Dutch newspaper the RNLAF has signed an agreement with Luxembourg to buy two A330MRTT tankers, to be based at Eindhoven and expected delivery in 2020.

[frank kramer]

In English (which is mandatory here...): The Netherlands and Luxemburg have reached an agreement for the purchase of 2 A330MRTT aircraft, to be based at Eindhoven from 2020. Other countries (Belgium, Norway, Germany, Poland) are still considering joining the deal. If they join, the number of A330's purchases may rise to 8.

[joost]

mentioned on Dutch ministry of defense site:

They will be based at Eindhoven and fly with Dutch markings.
https://www.defensie.nl/actueel/nieuws/ ... liegtuigen

[Stafsels]

Wondering which letter will the aircraft code get...


The first got the T from Tanker...
So now the P for Petrol of B for Benzine of K for Kersosin...



Stafsels

[nils]

in the defence paper that was reviewed last month, Belgium is concidering to buy at least 1 A330-MRTT by 2025.

[Typhoon3030]

That is nice a Great aircraft!

[Hurricane]

In English (which is mandatory here...)

The post was transfered from the Schiphol topic, I updated some parts to keep it in line.

in the defence paper that was reviewed last month, Belgium is concidering to buy at least 1 A330-MRTT by 2025.

That is the strange part on this announcement; the plan was for various nations to make 1 single order and it seems the joint approach is cut already.

That is nice a Great aircraft!

Given the waitlist for the KC-46/KC767 there is no other option to be honest

[evhest]

That is the strange part on this announcement; the plan was for various nations to make 1 single order and it seems the joint approach is cut already.

I agree that the announcement is a bit strange and seems to be aimed at pressuring the others to join, but it don't think Belgium was ever really part of the joint effort. Norway and Poland for sure were, with Germany showing interest.

[aviodromefriend]

in the defence paper that was reviewed last month, Belgium is concidering to buy at least 1 A330-MRTT by 2025.

That is the strange part on this announcement; the plan was for various nations to make 1 single order and it seems the joint approach is cut already.

All countries have to make decisions at different moments. Going by the MoD article it seems prices for these aircraft will be depending on the number or orders still to come, basically making the one order scenario not so necessary anymore.

[Belgaviation]

A little bit of context about the Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF) project: ten countries signed in November 2012 a non binding Letter of Intent (LoI)

The contract for the acquisition of two A330 MRTT aircraft, which was signed on Thursday 28 July by OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation) on behalf of the buying nations (The Netherlands and Luxembourg) and Airbus Defence and Space (ADS), is a milestone in the Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF) project which started back in 2011. At that time, EU leaders remembering the experiences gained during the Kosovo (1999) and Libya (2011) air campaigns once again acknowledged that Europe was crucially lacking Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) capabilities leading to constant reliance on US tankers. Indeed, during the 2011 operation over Libya, 80% of all AAR missions were flown by US aircraft.
Meeting on 30 November 2011 at the European Defence Agency (EDA) Steering Board, European Defence Ministers endorsed AAR as one of the initial ‘Pooling & Sharing’ initiatives to be focused on by the EDA. They agreed that additional AAR capabilities should be developed in Europe as a matter of priority. At the December 2013 European Council, EU Heads of State or Government also endorsed AAR as one of four key military capability programmes, alongside GovSatCom, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and Cyber Defence, to be developed by EDA Member States.
Even before the first ministerial call for action in 2011, the EDA had already developed a strategy aimed at increasing the overall AAR capacity; improving its efficiency as well as reducing fragmentation of the European aerial refuelling fleet. With this overarching goal in mind, and consistent with its role as an initiator and enabler of collaborative defence capability projects in Europe, the Agency started different workstrands each open to interested EDA Member States: on short-term commercial solutions to fill the AAR gap; on optimization of existing tanker assets and organisations; on AAR kits and clearances for the Airbus A400M; and on developing a pooled multinational Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) fleet.
The latter workstrand quickly evolved into a shared ambition of several EDA Member States to jointly acquire and operate a multinational pooled tanker fleet. In November 2012, Defence Ministers of 10 EDA Member States (The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Norway) signed a letter of intent in which they agreed to work towards pooling national requirements and acquiring new multi-role aircraft together, under the lead of The Netherlands. The declared aim was always to reach an initial European strategic tanker capability by 2020 which would be available for multinational and national use. The MMF, the Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet project, was born.