Stitchbitch wrote:
Spanish Eurofighters recently A2A refuelled from an A400M. Nice capability to have...
Years ago I did a capability assessment; 1.5 hours on an AARA 1.0 hr flight time from the tanker base, landing with fuel equivalent to an hour's average flight time indicated that the A400M without CBTs would have an offload capability of only 35% of that of an A330MRTT on the same task. With 2 x CBT it would increase to about 49%.
So not the world's most capable tanker if bought solely for that role. Accept the limitations and use it in a true multi-role manner then it does indeed become a very useful aircraft - assuming that your air force isn't shackled by some monopolistic PFI contractual nonsense...