Britain may speed up air tanker delivery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Britain is in talks to speed up the delivery of mid-air refueling tankers that can double as troop transporters, partly driven by delays to Europe's A400M military airlifter, European defense industry officials said.
Britain has long sought ways to modernize its 'air bridge' of troops to places like Iraq and Afghanistan, which relies on aging aircraft in use since the 1960s Aden conflict. But delays in the Airbus A400M have accelerated the move.
A consortium led by Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA) won a $26 billion deal in March to replace Britain's aging fleet of mid-air refueling planes from 2011, in what was described as the world's largest government outsourcing contract.
Airbus is also responsible for supplying the 7-nation A400M military transport plane due to provide new airlift for Britain from 2010, but grounded for now by development delays.
That plane is running an estimated 18-24 months late. It passed a milestone on Wednesday when its huge turbo-prop engine was tested in flight on a different model for the first time.
A senior official with defense electronics company Thales (TCFP.PA), one of the partners in the Air Tanker consortium, said Britain was looking at ways of speeding up delivery of the so-called FSA tanker and transport planes.
"We are examining with the customer (Ministry of Defense) whether there is a way we could make protected transportation available faster," Alex Dorrian, Chief Executive of Thales UK, told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington.
Another defense industry source in Europe said the talks reflected concerns over the performance of existing Vickers VC10 and Lockheed TriStar aircraft but also Britain's concerns over the shortfall in airlift left by the A400M delay.
The source said the outcome depended on what defensive aids or other features might be needed on an early batch of tankers if Britain decided to speed up delivery.
A British minister told parliament in November the Ministry of Defense "keeps its airlift capability planning under review and is considering contingency plans to mitigate any potential capability gaps caused by slippage in the A400M program."
An EADS spokesman confirmed the tanker rescheduling talks.
"We are in early discussions with the customer about the options associated with supplying an accelerated air transport capability to (British) forces," he said.
The Ministry of Defense in London was not immediately available to comment.
The converted A330 Airbus airliners to be supplied for refueling and transport can offload fuel to fighter jets from their main tanks and seat up to 300 troops in the main cabin.
The planes involved all have overlapping roles.
Britain depends on the aging VC10s and Lockheed TriStars to carry out troop transport where an ordinary runway is available, but they are expensive to run and their reliability is poor. The VC10s have a reliability of less than 65 percent, a defense source said.
The FSTA tanker is designed to combine this role with air-to-air refueling, while the A400M can refuel but is designed primarily for rugged conditions and dirt landing strips, competing with the Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) C-130.
Britain is also studying purchases or rentals of the Boeing (BA.N) C-17 Globemaster cargo plane to cover A400M delays.
Air forces worldwide are racing to renew their refueling and transport fleets as planners adapt to more dispersed threats to their security further away from their home base.
Lockheed Martin Chief Executive Robert Stevens told the Reuters summit that the company expects to sell hundreds of additional C-130J transport planes over the next 5 to 10 years, possibly doubling its production rate of one aircraft a month.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
