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Military aircraft manufacturer coming under delivery pressures as conflicts flare

6th November 2015

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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The changing and deteriorating international situation is having a clear impact on European defence enterprise Airbus Defence and Space, company military aircraft sales head Antonio Rodriguez Barberan reported at its recent Trade Media Briefing (TMB).

“There are conflicts,” he pointed out. “There are conflicts in the Middle East, there are conflicts in Africa, there is fear of conflict in Asia.

“The behaviour of our customers is changing,” he reported, adding that clients want aircraft they have ordered delivered more rapidly. “This is taking us to the limit of our capacity. We are also facing huge pressure from the customers that we maintain reliability and mission readiness at over 90%.” The company provides maintenance and other support services, or full in-service support, to a number of its customers.

“Customers don’t want solutions in 2018, they want to have solutions tomorrow.”

More and more of the company’s products are seeing real operational service. “Lots of C295s are doing real tactical missions in the Sahel,” he cited. Others are carrying out maritime surveillance missions over the Mediterranean.

Even though the A400M is only now entering service, it is also being committed to operations. “Some are doing real missions. Out of five air forces [which have received A400Ms], at least two are doing real operational missions with aircraft just delivered.” The A330 Multirole Tanker Transport (MRTT) is also actively supporting combat missions in the Middle East.

Airbus Defence and Space is also the biggest (but not a majority) shareholder in the Eurofighter consortium. The Eurofighter, also known as the Typhoon, is combat-proven and is heavily committed to air policing operations in the tense Baltic area, with different North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air forces rotating Eurofighter detachments to Estonia, which does not operate any fighters of its own.

“The best thing about the Eurofighter is the satisfaction of our customers,” affirmed Barberan. “It is really becoming the reference for air superiority worldwide. We have a clear roadmap for the plane. It is a plane that is not the cheapest, so we should not expect to sell hundreds.” On deployments, the fighter is achieving 99% fleet availability.

“We keep growing not only the number of planes [on order] but the number of our customers and the number of countries,” he highlighted. “We are almost everywhere. Some years ago, we decided to create a policy of establishing partnerships with [customer] countries [or establish local subsidiaries]. The reason for this is, of course, to sustain technical [support] services. Our future strategy is to support armies, air forces, in a way they find locally sustainable.”

Because of the fatal accident in May, “it has been a difficult year” for the A400M. But deliveries have continued and at least 14 will be handed over to customers this year. “Light and medium – a very successful year-and-a-half,” he reported. The company won 28 orders in 2014 and 15 more in 2015 so far. Its light and medium transport aircraft portfolio is composed of the CN235 and the larger C295. “In this market, the 295 is cannibalising the 235,” he noted, because the market is demanding larger aircraft.

“Customers want workhorses that can sustain the missions, that can deliver the missions.” The company’s strategy is to offer special mission versions of the C295 as well as transport aircraft.

All C212s – the oldest and smallest of the company’s designs – are now built in Indonesia by a local partner company PTDI; they can still be ordered through Airbus as well as from PTDI, but from Airbus’s side, C212s will be produced only on demand from customers.

Regarding the A330 MRTT, “we could not be more successful”. The aircraft has won nearly every competition it has been entered into. Its most recent win was in South Korea. In June, Seoul announced the selection of the A330 MRTT to equip the Republic of Korea Air Force. Four of the tankers will be acquired. “Winning Korea was an absolute success,” enthused Barberan.

Campbell attended the TMB 2015 in Seville, Spain, as a guest of the company.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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