Airbus Military’s troubled A400M airlifter programme is now progressing well, with the first production aircraft set to be delivered to the launch customer within a few months, Airbus group president and CEO Fabrice Brégier reported at the Airbus annual press conference on Thursday. “We were in deep crisis, [but] since 2009 we have worked very hard.”

“The A400M programme was progressing very well until mid-summer [2012],” he elucidated. “Then we had maturity problems with the engine.” The aircraft is powered by four Europrop International (EPI) TP400-D6 turboprop engines, the most powerful turboprops ever developed outside of Russia.

EPI is owned by ITP, MTU Aero Engines, Rolls-Royce and Snecma (part of the Safran group), with MTU, Rolls-Royce and Snecma being the largest shareholders, with 28% each (but Rolls-Royce also owns almost 47% of ITP). Brégier expressed his pleasure with the strength of the response of, in particular, Rolls-Royce and Safran to these problems.

As a result, Airbus Military was able to conclude the 300-hour Function and Reliability testing of the aircraft, which is a prerequisite to both military and civil aviation certification. “They [Airbus Military] completed the reliability flight programme in 26 days,” he revealed. “The first big milestone has been achieved. The second will be entry into service.”

The A400M is expected to achieve military and civil certification during this quarter, and the first production aircraft – which was rolled out on Tuesday (January 15) – should be delivered to the French Air Force during the second quarter. By the end of this year, four production aircraft should have been delivered to the French Air Force and the Turkish Air Force (two each).

Four A400Ms are currently in final assembly and another 13 are in production. Significant components of the A400M are designed and manufactured in South Africa, by Aerosud and Denel Aerostructures, both of which are industrial partners in the programme.

Airbus Military is a “very important part of our business,” highlighted Brégier. It delivered 29 aircraft last year, composed of 20 light and medium transports (CN235s and C295s) five A330 Multirole Tanker Transports (MRTTs) and four refitted and refurbished Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft. Its order backlog, described by Brégier as “huge”, stands at 174 A400Ms, 17 A330 MRTTs,  20 C295s, five CN235s and four P-3s.