Originally Posted by
melmothtw
I found a lot of what was said about 'the superior capability' of the A400M at the recent Defence Select Committee hearing to be disingenuous. They kept making the point, ad nauseum, that the A400M is bigger and therefore it must be better, highlighting the operation in Sudan.
"Well, I think actually it's not a loss of capability, it's a gain of capability, because the Secretary of State very clearly believes this is a next generation aircraft ahead of the Hercules. On at that crucial operation in Sudan, the maximum number of people that was carried out by the Hercules was 143, [while] the maximum from the A400 was 251. That is incredibly important." - Minister for Defence Procurement James Cartlidge
Begs the question why we didn't buy a shed load more C-17s while the line was still open, if the number of passengers it can carry is the absolute standard by which we're measuring our air mobility capability.
If the A400 is so brilliant why have the French & Germans ordered Hercules?
Apart from Belgium & now the UK every A400 operates a smaller type (C130/C295/C235) to supplement the larger aircraft.
It doesn’t matter how big / good an aircraft is it can’t be in 2 x places at once.