Sweden selects C-390M Millennium
On 9 November 2024, Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to begin the process of purchasing the EMBRAER C-390M Millennium for use with Flygvapnet (Swed AF, Swedish Air Force).
The Millennium will replace the ageing Lockheed Martin C-130E/H Hercules, the first of which was delivered in February 1965. This oldest Hercules, serial 84001, was retired in June 2014. Currently, the Swedish Air Force has a fleet of six operational Hercules transport aircraft, known in Sweden as the Tp84.
It has not yet been announced how many C-390M Millenium transport aircraft will be purchased.
In October 2023, Scramble Magazine first reported on the possible sale of the Millennium to Sweden, when Brazilian Minister of Defence Jose Mucio planed to travel to Sweden to negotiate a potential sale of Embraer’s C-390 Millennium transport aircraft to Sweden.
Lockheed Martin offered the C-130J-30 Super Hercules as the successor. For this they worked together with the Swedish company MilDef International AB.
Sweden becomes the eighth nation and fifth NATO country in Europe to prefer the C-390 Millennium after Brazil, Portugal, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, South Korea and Czechia.
Credit image: EMBRAER