The European fleet of Airbus A330 MRTT ("Multi-Role Tanker Transport") tanker and transport aircraft will eventually increase from nine to ten aircraft, thanks to a new investment of more than 270 million granted by Belgium.
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Multinational MRTT Unit now has a "pool" of seven devices out of the nine currently ordered (Picture source: Airbus)
This fleet, which bears the name of MMU (for "Multinational MRTT Unit"), brings together six European member countries of NATO (Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway and the Czech Republic). It now has a "pool" of seven devices out of the nine currently ordered, the last two having been delivered at the end of July.
The STAR plan (for "Security & Service, Technology, Ambition, Resilience") approved this summer by the Belgian government and by parliament, however, provides for Belgium to invest, in the second half of the decade, in the equivalent of an additional MRTT in order to achieve a participation of "two MRTT equivalents". Belgium will indeed be the “economic owner of the aircraft” but it will be made available to all the countries which have participated financially, namely Germany, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Norway. The fleet will therefore increase from nine to ten aircraft, the office of the Belgian Minister of Defense, Ludivine Dedonder, told the Belga agency on Monday.
The STAR plan sets an amount of 272.38 million euros for this additional contribution - equivalent to a thousand flight hours per year - for the period from 2025 or 2026 (for the budgetary commitment) to 2029, year expected by the end of payments, according to the defense cabinet.
Tankers, essential for carrying out large-scale air operations, are a rare system in the arsenal of European armies which are nevertheless trying to fill this gap: thanks to the MMU, by the replacement in France of the 12 old American Boeing KC-135s by 15 Airbus A330 MRTTs and in Spain by the planned conversion of three civil A330s into "tankers". These planes are also capable of carrying out passenger and/or freight transport and medical evacuation (or Medevac in military jargon) missions.
Belgium joined the MMU project at the beginning of 2018, allocating an amount of 258 million euros, equivalent to a departing aircraft. This guarantees him an annual quota of 1,000 flight hours for in-flight refueling missions, passenger transport - including King Philippe for trips to Denmark, the Middle East or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - and/ or freight and medical evacuation (up to six patients in "high care" and simultaneously sixteen patients in "low care", as well as the necessary medical personnel).
The A330 MRTT has the two existing refueling systems, which allows it to resupply almost all combat aircraft in service in the West. It is the perch (boom), used by many American planes (F-15, F-16, F-35, C-17, E-3 Awacs...) and the basket (hose and drogue) rather used by European fighters, such as the French Rafale and Mirage, the Eurofighter or the Swedish JAS-39. The seven aircraft already in service operate both from Eindhoven airfield (southern Netherlands) and from the military part of Cologne airport (western Germany).
The A330 MRTT has the two existing refueling systems, which allows it to resupply almost all combat aircraft in service in the West. It is the perch (boom), used by many American planes (F-15, F-16, F-35, C-17, E-3 Awacs...) and the basket (hose and drogue ) rather used by European fighters (Picture source: Airbus)
