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. They 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 – Full In-Service Support – to a large and increasing 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 just 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 (known to the British as the Typhoon) is now combat-proven and is heavily committed to air policing operations in the tense Baltic area. "The best thing about the Eurofighter is the satisfaction of our customers," affirmed Barberan. "It is really becoming the reference for air superiority worldwide.”

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