Analysis: America's future airlifter, the European A400M - how good is this aircraft?

Analysis: America's future airlifter, the European A400M

While Airbus Defence and Space (DS) is still looking to meet its short-term goal of securing the first export customer for the A400M transport aircraft since Malaysia joined the programme in 2005, its medium- and long-term objectives for the airlifter could well be satisfied via an unlikely avenue: the United States.

With just 18 of its current 174-aircraft orderbook delivered, Airbus DS has its work cut out to achieve its stated goal of securing sales for 300 A400Ms over the next 30 years. While this is certainly doable, the company may struggle if operators sign up in the relatively small numbers typical for such assets outside of the US Air Force (USAF). Indeed, its cause will certainly not be helped in the near term by current operators looking to offload portions of their existing inventories onto the second-hand market as national budget cuts continue to bite.

If Airbus DS is to achieve its ambitious goals for the A400M, then it will very probably have to find a buyer with a requirement that, if not for hundreds of aircraft, at least stretches into the high double digits. The only customer that could come close to this, at least in the West, is the USAF. Although the USAF's current fixed-wing transport needs are more than adequately met by its fleet of 428 Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules, 221 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, and 52 Lockheed Martin C-5M Galaxy airlifters, it could face a medium-heavy capability gap as tomorrow's outsized cargo becomes harder to transport by C-130 and as early-model C-17s are retired from service.

The payload of the latest variant C-130J is 22 tonnes, while the C-17's is 77 tonnes and the C-5M's about 130 tonnes. A payload of 37 tonnes puts the A400M squarely between the C-130J and C-17 in terms of lift capacity, which is probably no coincidence.

http://www.janes.com/article/56673/analysis-america-s-future-airlifter-the-european-a400m