MILITARY AIRLIFT MARKET

MILITARY AIRLIFT MARKET REPORT

Mise à jour 2009/ALGERIE-DEFENSE/ By Defence IQ a division of  IQPC

AIRBUS A400M
EADS has slowed production of the A400M military transport while hitches relating to the aircraft’s
powerplant persist. Two A400Ms have been completed and four are in different stages of
production. EADS announced in September 2008 that it was indefinitely postponing the first flight of
the A400M because of problems with its TP400 powerplant and “related systems”.
Initial deliveries of the A400M are now set to begin in late 2010; a full year behind schedule. France,
which has ordered 50 A400Ms, will be the first customer to receive the aircraft. Altogether, seven
European countries are set to buy 180 A400Ms under a single EUR20 billion ($25.5 billion) contract
signed in 2003 and billed at the time as the most ambitious military procurement programme ever
undertaken in Europe. Malaysia and South Africa have since ordered a further 12 of the airlifters.
The UK Ministry of Defence may acquire additional C‐17 Globemaster or C‐130 Hercules transport
aircraft as a result of the delayed A400M programme. Germany, meanwhile, has called for “full
clarity and transparency” from the European aerospace group. The UK MoD is scheduled to acquire
25 A400Ms to replace its C‐130Ks, which will are due to leave service in 2012.
Germany is planning to acquire 60 A400Ms to replace its fleet of C‐160 Transall transport aircraft,
which entered service in 1968.
France is likely to order a number of EADS‐CASA C‐295 transport aircraft to help cover any shortfall
in capability caused by delays to the A400M programme. A deal for at least six aircraft could be
announced soon. The C‐295, which is entirely built in Spain, has the advantage of being already in
service with 9 different air forces. In addition, France already operates its smaller sister transport
aircraft, the CN‐235.

ALENIA AERONAUTICA C‐27J JOINT CARGO AIRCRAFT (JCA)
The C‐27J twin‐engined tactical airlifter evolved from the US Army’s Future Cargo aircraft (FCA)
programme of 2004, which morphed into the joint Army‐Air Force Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA). The C‐
27J JCA was chosen to meet the Army’s requirement for a C‐23B Sherpa replacement, able to
operate from 1,800ft (550m) unpaved runways, carry 10,200lb (4,626kg) of cargo or 34 passengers
and fly from an austere forward base. Powerplant for the C‐27J is 4,637shp (3,459kW) Rolls‐Royce
AE2100‐D2A turboprop engines.
The US Army has awarded L‐3 Communications a contract to deliver its second batch of Alenia
Aernonautica C‐27 J Spartan tactical transports starting in 2011. Worth $201 million, the sevenaircraft
deal raises the army’s overall order to 13 under the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) programme
with the US Air Force. The army plans to buy at least 54 C‐27Js under the JCA programme. The USAF
intends to acquire 24, but is not due to place an order for the type until next year. The US Special
Operations Command also plans to acquire C‐27Js converted for use as light gunships.

ANTONOV AN‐32
Production of AN‐32s recommenced in 2005, but only to complete unfinished airframes. Production
will probably then come to an end, as there will be no more unfinished airframes and it would be
uneconomical to fully restart reproduction from scratch.

ANTONOV AN‐70
Antonov’s long‐running An‐70 development programme has gained further momentum recently,
after a period of minimal activity. The company announced on the 18th December 2008 that the
sole surviving development aircraft (the second prototype) had completed para‐dropping trials in
the Ukraine earlier in the month. Despite Russia’s withdrawal from An‐70 development in 2006,
discussions are now under way regarding a new inter‐governmental agreement between Russia and
Ukraine on renewed cooperation.
This would cover completion of development and certification, series production and joint
marketing. Under the new protocol, modernized avionics are planned, which would delay
certification and production until 2011, when Russia and Ukraine would each receive two An‐70s.

ANTONOV AN‐72/74
There are several current versions of the AN‐72 and AN‐74. A total of nearly 200 were reportedly in
service in 2005.

BOEING C‐17 GLOBEMASTER III
The United States relies heavily on strategic airlift to project power and to wage conflicts in distant
locations like Iraq and Afghanistan. The C‐17 usually maintains high mission capable rates, currently
around 82%, which make it reliable and fully ready for most long‐distance cargo hauling duties. The
C‐17 fuselage was tailored for easy roll‐on, roll‐off loading capability and for rapid turnaround at
austere airfields.
Although the C‐17 was designed to fly with just two pilots and a loadmaster, it frequently has to
carry double crews to handle long journeys that require several stops. If it were intended as a large
tactical transport for inter‐theatre duty, rather than a too‐small strategic airlifter for long‐range
operations, the Globemaster would be perfect. For ‘strat,’ however, the C‐17 is only marginal in
terms of payload and range. A USAF factsheet glosses over this deficiency by listing the range of the
C‐17 only as ‘global, with air refuelling’.
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates announced in the FY2010 budget proposal that no more C‐
17s, beyond the 205 already under contract for the U.S. Air Force, would be procured.

CASA C‐212
474 of all versions had been sold by early 2007, to 89 military and civil operators in 38 countries.
Final assembly is undertaken at Bandung, Indonesia and Seville, Spain.

CASA CN‐235
Over 230 CN‐235 short take‐off and landing transport aircraft are in service with over 20 countries

worldwide, including the air forces of France, Spain, Turkey, Malaysia, Morocco, Colombia, Pakistan
and Indonesia.
EADS CASA has developed a series of variants of the 235, with improved payload, performance and
maintainability. The CASA CN235‐300 provides improved hot and high performance, in‐flight
refuelling for extended range and longer time on station, higher‐rated pressurisation and optional
twin nose‐wheels to replace the single nose‐wheel for improved operation on short and unprepared
runways.

EADS CASA C‐295
58 Military Transport variants of the C‐295 have been ordered for Algeria (3), Brazil (12), Colombia
(4), Finland (2), Jordan (2), Poland (11), Portugal (7), Spain (15) and Switzerland (2).

EMBRAER C‐390
Brazil’s Embraer unveiled the latest design concept of its C‐390 medium transport aircraft (MTA) at
the company’s Sao Jose dos Campos facility near Sao Paulo in November 2008. The company had
revised the aircraft’s initial design to reflect the heavier lift capability required in response to a
request for proposal (RIP) from the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in the last week of October.
Embraer had originally planned to base its new transport aircraft on the Embraer 190 regional
airliner, maximising commonality between the types to reduce research and development costs and
ultimately the aircraft’s final unit cost. Although the revised C‐390 has largely outgrown the
Embraer 190, it does still utilise many of the airliner’s components and systems.
The proposed 19‐tonne cargo capability of the C‐390 is designed to bring it into the same (mediumweight)
class as Lockheed Martin’s C‐130J (18.95 tonnes) and Airbus’ A400M (37 tonnes). At the
lighter end of the transport market, Embraer feels that the C‐390 could also compete with the Alenia
C‐27J Spartan (9 tonnes), and the Antonov An‐72/74 (10 tonnes).
In the latest configuration, the C‐390 is very similar in appearance to the Illyushin II‐214 being
developed for Russia’s MTA competition, the Antonov 148 and the Kawasaki C‐1A.
Able to operate from short, semi‐prepared runways, the C‐390 will have a service ceiling of 36,000
ft, a maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.8 and is designed to carry a full 19‐tonne payload 1,600 n
miles, or a 12.5 tonne payload 2,250 n miles.
The aircraft’s enlarged cross‐section means that it will be able to accommodate one Patria 8×8 AMV,
one LAV‐25, one EE‐11 Urutu, or three HMMWV’s. Alternatively, the C‐390 will be able to transport
80 regular troops or 64 paratroopers.
Embraer has identified a global market potential for the C‐390 of 700 aircraft in 77 countries. The
current schedule is for the first flight to take place in 2013 with the first of an expected 22 aircraft
being delivered to the FAB in 2015 and deliveries continuing for at least 20 years.
Colombia has shown interest in co‐developing the C‐390 with Brazil.

ILYUSHIN IL‐76
In September 2005, China re‐affirmed a requirement for up to 38 aircraft to be delivered over 6

years, but may be withdrawn because of price increases. 2 aircraft are on order for Jordan. The IL‐
76MF is the latest production variant – 70 are reportedly required by the Russian Air Force.

KAWASAKI C‐2
Up to 60 are required by the JASDF to replace the C‐1A and C‐130H. Service entry is scheduled for
2012.

LOCKHEED‐MARTIN C‐130J SUPER HERCULES
The C‐130J is a digital‐age, second‐generation revision of the timeless Hercules that can provide
short‐distance tactical airlift to unprepared airfields and land almost anywhere. The C‐130J
introduced a two‐person automated cockpit with four flat‐panel liquid crystal displays, eliminating
navigator and flight engineer crew positions.
The company hopes to increase annual production from 12 C‐130Js in 2009 to around 24 in 2010.
The company has so far delivered 171 aircraft from an order book for 257 of the type. Besides U.S.
forces, the aircraft has received export orders totalling 106 aircraft from Australia, Canada,
Denmark, India, Italy, Norway, Qatar, the UAE and the UK.
Up to September 2008, 129 C‐130Js of various versions had been funded for the U.S. Armed Forces.
The USAF requirement is for more than 150 aircraft. By the end of 2007, 96 had been delivered.

LOCKHEED MARTIN C‐5 GALAXY
The C‐5 is the largest airlifter in the West. With its unique 28‐wheel undercarriage, the Galaxy
has short‐field landing and take‐off capability, requires no pavement and only slightly more distance
than the C‐17, although neither aircraft routinely operates from crude airfields. It takes two C‐17s to
carry out a mission that can be completed by a single, maxed‐up C‐5, and the C‐5 can travel about
23% further.
The C‐5 can accommodate items of cargo that a C‐17 cannot, such as the US Army’s 148,000lb
(67,133kg) armoured vehicle launched scissors bridge. The C‐5’s range is not only greater than the
C‐17’s, but so much greater (about 6,320nm/11,692km compared to 3,700nm/6,845km) that the
USAF does not even list a figure for the latter aircraft on its factsheet.
However, the C‐5 Galaxy is unreliable. Mission capable rates have often dropped below 50%,
meaning that two airframes must be prepared to assure the launch of a single mission. The four,
43,000lb (191,26kN) thrust General Electric TF39‐GE‐1C turbofan engines on all C‐5s except
AMP/RERP modernized airframes are difficult to support and maintain. A typical C‐5 requires 16
maintenance hours for every hour in flight. Currently, among 59 C‐5As, one is grounded due to
structural cracks, four are flight restricted for a variety of reasons, and 35 have restrictions due to a
crown skin problem. Among 49 C‐5Bs, four are restricted due to a torque deck anomaly. Both C‐5Cs
also have flight restrictions.
The AMP and RERP modernization programmes have suffered painful delays and cost increases.
The US Air Force (USAF) took delivery of its first upgraded Lockheed Martin C‐5M ‘Super Galaxy’
strategic transport aircraft on the 9th December 2008. The USAF currently plans to take delivery of
52 upgraded C‐5M aircraft. The C‐5M, termed the ‘Super Galaxy’ by Lockheed Martin, is the result
of a two‐phase modernisation programme that included both the Avionics Modernisation
Programme (AMP) and Reliability Enhancement and Re‐engining Programme (RERP). To date, 46 C‐5

aircraft have completed the AMP upgrade and have already logged more than 45,000 flight hours
with the new glass cockpit and digital systems. RERP, the second phase of the modernisation effort,
involved replacing the aircraft’s four General Electric (GE) TF39‐GE‐1C turbofans with new GE CF6‐
80C2 commercial engines (military designation F108‐GE‐100) and 70 other enhancements or
replacements of major components and subsystems.

PZL MIELEC M‐28
Over 60 aircraft are in service with 6 countries.

MARKET

AUSTRALIA
Australia has begun preliminary talks with Lockheed Martin over the purchase of additional C‐130J
tactical transports early in the next decade. It is unclear how many Hercules could be bought to
supplement the Royal Australian Air Forces’s current 12 C‐130Js, but industry sources say about six
more could be required.
These would replace the 14 de Haviland Canada DHC‐4 Caribou light transports to be retired at the
end of 2009 and some of the service’s eight remaining C‐130Hs, and would supplement the recent
introduction of four Boeing C‐17 strategic transports.

BELGIUM
Belgium has begun efforts to seek replacement aircraft for its two Airbus A310‐222 transports,
which serve with 15 Transport Wing at Brussels‐Melsbroek.
Although they have only been in service for little more than ten years, the aircraft were acquired
second‐hand, having originally been delivered to Singapore Airlines in 1985, and are now showing
their age. It was announced on the 11th December 2008 that the Council of Ministers had
authorised the conclusion of a contract for provision of 2,000 flight hours per year on a wide‐body
aircraft, which would be operated by Belgian Defence personnel.
This is seen as a transitional measure to meet an urgent Defence requirement to provide adequate
long‐range transport with a transatlantic capacity aircraft, pending a more permanent solution. The
contract would also include maintenance of the aircraft and type conversion of Belgian Defence
personnel that are already qualified on the A310.

CZECH REPUBLIC
The Czech government has awarded a CZK3.5 billion ($167 million) contract to EADS‐CASA to supply
four C‐295M tactical transport aircraft to the army of the Czech Republic.

FRANCE
Transfer into storage at BA279 Chateaudun began recently of nine veteran Armee de l’Air (French
Air Force) Transall C160Rs, which have reached the end of their careers. (See A400M).

MOROCCO
Morocco is the latest customer for the C‐27J Spartan tactical transport, with the placing of a E130
million ($175 million) contract to supply the north African nation with four aircraft.

NATO
NATO and Russia may be moving closer to seeing eye‐to‐eye on the possibility of using Russian
military transport aircraft in support of the NATO‐led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
in Afghanistan. Using Russian Air Force transport aircraft in support of ISAF would be a big step
forward in military‐to‐military co‐operation between NATO and Moscow, building on NATO’s earlier
leasing of Antonov transport aircraft from Russian and Ukranian commercial operators in early 2008.

TAIWAN
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence is preparing a request for six C‐27J Spartans.

UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) signalled a major enhancement to its airlift capabilities on the 24th
February 2009 with orders for Boeing C‐17 Globemaster III strategic airlifters and Lockheed Martin
C‐130J‐30 Hercules tactical transports. Announced at the IDX defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi, the
orders are for four C‐17s worth a total of AED4.3 billion ($1.2 billion) and for 12 C‐130J‐30s, worth
AED5.9 billion.
The deals make the UAE the second and largest regional customer for both platforms; Qatar has two
C‐17s and four C‐130Js on order. The UAE becomes the tenth country to order the C‐130J. Iraq and
Israel have also announced their intention to purchase the type.

VENEZUELA
Ilyushin Aircraft Complex Director General Viktor Livanov confirmed on the 23rd January 2009 that
talks were continuing over acquisition of IL‐76 Candid transports by Venezuela for its Aviacion Militar
Nacional Bolivarian (Venezuelan National Military Aviation).
Livanov indicated that it is expected that the Il‐76TD‐90VD variant, with new PS‐90A‐76 engines and
Western avionics