A Turkish Air Force A400M departing the 2024 Royal International Air Tattoo in RAF Fairford on 22 July 2024. (Janes/Sam Wise)
Airbus announced that the full airdrop capabilities of its A400M strategic turboprop airlifter are now available to its operators after certification was granted in the week of 29 July 2024. The company told Janes that the full 25 t airdrop capability includes delivering pallets in flight by extraction parachute or via acceleration on the ground in a combat offload scenario.
The new certifications allow the aircraft to drop these loads automatically with release controlled by onboard software, which the company claims allows for higher precision and situational awareness during combat drops. The previous certification only allowed up to 19 t of pallets to be released, with the drops performed manually by the aircrew.
Janes understands from Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel at Farnborough 2024 that the new qualification includes the option of airdropping vehicles, a capability that the RAF has been testing.
On top of this 25 t airdrop capability, Janes data shows that the A400M has a maximum tactical payload of 30 t and a maximum logistic payload of 37 t.
According to Airbus, this certification represents the final contractually required envelope for aerial delivery and combat offload for the aircraft, although it will continue to work with existing operators on further developing the capabilities if needed.
For more information on A400M developments, please seeRAF confident of complete capability transition to A400M by 2025.
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