Airbus mulls boosting tanker production on ‘very high’ demand

PARIS — Airbus is considering raising production of its A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft in response to “very high” demand from existing clients and potential new buyers, the company said at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday.

“With the signals we’re getting from the customers, we are studying a rate increase of the MRTT,” said Jean-Brice Dumont, head of air power at Airbus, in a press conference here. “When I say study, it’s more than studying.”

Airbus currently produces between four and five A330 MRTT aircraft a year, and “we would have to significantly increase it,” Dumont said. “The demand signal on the tankers is very high.”

Europe faces critical capability shortfalls in air-to-air refueling, according to the European Defence Agency. Airbus had delivered 36 A330 MRTT aircraft to European customers by the end of April, with another six on order, compared to the United States operating a tanker fleet of more than 400 aircraft.

Dumont estimates there may be a market for an additional ten to 20 of the planes in Europe, with further demand in the rest of the world, he told Defense News. The executive said the MRTT market is hard to gauge as “it’s quite dynamic,” with demand “coming and coming.”

Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark earlier this month signed a letter of intent to participate in NATO’s European MRTT fleet. Denmark already in March indicated plans to join the European tanker pool, including the potential purchase of two MRTT aircraft, saying its participation would cost an estimated 7.4 billion Danish kroner ($1.1 billion) over 2025-2033.

Airbus is seeing interest from countries that want to participate in the European pool as well as existing individual customers that want to grow their fleet in the current security context, and also potential new clients, according to Dumont. “A bit of everything,” he said.

The U.K. is the biggest European operator of the A330 MRTT with 14 planes, while France operates 12 aircraft with another three on order. Six European countries including the Netherlands and Germany have pooled their tanker needs in the NATO multi-nation fleet, which operates nine aircraft with one more on order.

“There is a foreseeable increase of the pool, I think many countries are realizing, with a number of fighters or other aircraft they have that can be refueled, that they have a need for fast deployment,” Dumont said. “So the pool is an answer.”

International operators include Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Airbus says the A330 MRTT has a market share of more than 90% in air-to-air refueling aircraft outside the United States.

Airbus faces a number of thresholds to ramp up tanker production that would entail investments to align tools and resolve industrial bottlenecks, Dumont said in the press conference. The executive said those thresholds might be at six aircraft a year and eight a year. “And then we can go much higher, but that’s another story.”

One question is whether Airbus has the hangars to accommodate higher output or would need to build new hangers or add production locations beyond the current ones. Dumont said. The company converts A330 aircraft assembled in France into tankers at its site in Getafe, south of Madrid.

Dumont said the company is close to signing the launch customer for the MRTT+, a new version based on the A330neo, with more fuel-efficient engines and an improved wing. The first MRTT+ is in production, with a target of delivering the plane by the end of 2028, he said.

Airbus also presented new capabilities for its A400M transport aircraft, including an increase of the payload by 3 metric tons to 40 tons and the capability to function as a drone “mothership” or an electronic-warfare platform for stand-off jamming.

“We are testing dropping drones from an A400M, we are then controlling a drone from an A400M,” Dumont said. “There is a question of mass saturation. How could the A400M play a role in saturation, in dropping a number of small vehicles as close as possible to the hostile contested area?”

The A400M could also act as communications hub for Europe’s planned sixth-generation Future Combat Air System, according to Airbus. The transport aircraft is already certified to be configured as a tanker, including for fighters such as the Eurofighter or Rafale.

France and Spain agreed to advance delivery of four and three ordered A400M aircraft, respectively, Airbus said. Phasing of the deliveries by customer countries was leading to a lower production rate than what Airbus considered sustainable, which is eight A400Ms aircraft per year, Dumont said.

“What we have agreed with them is a mechanism that enables to fill these eight production slots with either a local aircraft or an export aircraft, and a sort of a swap mechanism when export comes,” Dumont said. The production plan for the A400M is filled with eight aircraft a year until early 2029, the executive said.

“We could increase, but I think we prefer having a stable production system,” Dumont said. With the first half of 2029 four years away, “when we see the world as it is, I wouldn’t panic with something four years from now.”

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——空客公司周二在巴黎航展上表示，由于现有客户和潜在新买家对A330多用途加油运输机的需求“非常高”，该公司正在考虑提高该机型的产量。

空客公司空中动力部门负责人让-布里斯·杜蒙在新闻发布会上表示：“根据我们从客户那里得到的反馈，我们正在研究提高MRTT（多用途运输工具）的费率。我说‘研究’，其实不仅仅是研究。”

杜蒙表示，空客目前每年生产四到五架A330 MRTT飞机，“我们必须大幅提高产量”。“市场对加油机的需求非常旺盛。”

欧洲防务局指出，欧洲在空中加油能力方面面临严重不足。截至4月底，空客已向欧洲客户交付了36架A330 MRTT加油机，另有6架订单，而美国运营的加油机机队规模超过400架。

杜蒙特估计，欧洲可能还有10到20架这种飞机的市场需求，世界其他地区也有进一步的需求。他告诉《防务新闻》，这位高管表示，MRTT市场很难预测，因为“它非常活跃”，需求“源源不断”。

本月初，芬兰、瑞典、挪威和丹麦签署了一份意向书，计划加入北约的欧洲多用途加油机（MRTT）机队。丹麦早在3月份就已表示计划加入欧洲加油机联盟，包括可能购买两架MRTT飞机。丹麦称，其参与该计划预计将在2025年至2033年间耗资74亿丹麦克朗（约合11亿美元）。

据杜蒙称，空客公司发现，一些国家希望加入欧洲飞机共享计划，一些现有客户希望在当前的安全形势下扩大机队规模，此外还有一些潜在的新客户。“各种情况都有，”他说道。

英国是欧洲最大的A330 MRTT运营商，拥有14架飞机；法国运营12架，另有3架已订购。包括荷兰和德国在内的六个欧洲国家已联合组建北约多国加油机队，该机队目前运营9架，另有1架已订购。

杜蒙说：“我认为，随着许多国家拥有大量可空中加油的战斗机或其他飞机，空中加油池的需求量预计会大幅增加，因此他们需要快速部署。所以，空中加油池就是一个解决方案。”

国际运营商包括新加坡、韩国、澳大利亚、沙特阿拉伯和阿拉伯联合酋长国。空客公司表示，A330 MRTT 在美国以外的空中加油飞机市场占有超过 90% 的市场份额。

杜蒙在新闻发布会上表示，空客要提高加油机产量，必须达到一系列门槛，这需要投资来协调生产工具并解决工业瓶颈。这位高管说，这些门槛可能是每年六架或八架。“当然，我们还可以做得更好，但这又是另一个故事了。”

杜蒙表示，一个问题是空客是否有足够的机库来容纳更高的产量，或者是否需要建造新的机库或在现有生产基地之外增设生产场所。该公司在马德里以南的赫塔菲工厂将法国组装的A330飞机改装成加油机。

杜蒙表示，公司即将与MRTT+的首位客户签署合同。MRTT+是基于A330neo的新版本，配备了更节能的发动机和改进的机翼。他透露，首架MRTT+已投入生产，目标是在2028年底前交付。

空客还展示了其 A400M 运输机的新能力，包括有效载荷增加 3 公吨至 40 吨，以及作为无人机“母舰”或用于远程干扰的电子战平台的能力。

“我们正在测试从A400M运输机上投放无人机，然后从A400M上控制无人机，”杜蒙说。“这里存在一个大规模饱和投放的问题。A400M如何在饱和投放中发挥作用，即尽可能靠近敌对的争夺区域投放大量小型飞行器？”

据空客公司称，A400M还可以作为欧洲计划中的第六代未来作战空中系统（FCA）的通信枢纽。这款运输机已获得认证，可改装为加油机，包括为欧洲战斗机或阵风战斗机等战斗机提供加油。

空客公司表示，法国和西班牙已同意分别提前交付四架和三架订购的A400M飞机。杜蒙表示，由于客户国分阶段交付，导致产量低于空客认为可持续的水平，即每年生产八架A400M飞机。

杜蒙表示：“我们与他们达成的协议是，建立一种机制，使这八个生产名额既可以用于生产国产飞机，也可以用于生产出口飞机，并在出口时采用某种交换机制。”这位高管还表示，A400M的生产计划已排满，每年生产八架，直至2029年初。

“我们可以增加产量，但我认为我们更倾向于保持稳定的生产体系​​，”杜蒙说道。距离2029年上半年还有四年时间，“就目前的情况来看，我不会对四年后的事情感到恐慌。”

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。