Today the Airbus Military A400M new generation airlifter has received its Type Acceptance at the contractual Initial Operating Clearance (IOC) Standard from OCCAR, the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation, on behalf of the Launch Nations (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom).
It represents a historic milestone of the A400M programme after 10 years of development and more than 5,000 flight test hours.
This first military standard acceptance is the last step prior to the aircraft acceptance of MSN7, the first serial aircraft, by the French Defence Procurement Agency DGA and its subsequent delivery to the French Air Force in the coming days.
The common basis for military certification was approved on 19 July following a recommendation by representatives of the seven launch nations known as the Certification and Qualification Committee (CQC). And Airbus Military accordingly received on 24 July the Military Type Certificate (Certificat de Type) for A400M aircraft from DGA.
The A400M is an all-new military airlifter designed to meet the needs of the world’s Armed Forces in the 21st Century. Thanks to its most advanced technologies, it is able to fly higher, faster and further, while retaining high maneuverability, low speed, and short, soft and rough airfield capabilities.
It combines both tactical and strategic/logistic missions. With its cargo hold specifically designed to carry the outsize equipment needed today for both military and humanitarian disaster relief missions, it can bring this material quickly and directly to where it is most needed. Conceived to be highly reliable, dependable, and with a great survivability, the multipurpose A400M can do more with less, implying smaller fleets and less investment from the operator.
The A400M is the most cost efficient and versatile airlifter ever conceived and absolutely unique in its capabilities.
