Germany still buying 60 A400M transporters

Airbus image

10 March 2010

Germany’s Defence Minister has given an update on his country’s plans.
 

March 10: Following France’s statement on the Airbus A400M deal with EADS, Germany’s Defence Minister Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg also gave an update on his country’s plans.

Deliveries of the German machines will begin in 2014 and the intention is to still buy 60 aircraft, he said, adding that the project is “militarily critical” as the A400M is urgently needed to replace the fleet of C-160 Transalls, now getting very expensive to operate. “The continuation of the project is also good news for Germany because it will secure many jobs," he told the Mitteldeutschen Rundfunk radio station.

The first A400M prototype, MSN 1, has now arrived at Airbus’s facility in Toulouse, France to continue the test programme. The aircraft has now made eleven flights and logged 39 hours.

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