LONDON — The first of 14 new A330 transport and inflight refueling tanker planes has been released for operational service with Britain’s Royal Air Force.
AirTanker Services, the EADS-led consortium providing the aircraft, said the jet conducted its first training sortie under the command of its own crew April 8 to “signal the commencement of the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft [FSTA] service to the RAF.” AirTanker is providing the aircraft to the RAF as part of a 24-year private finance initiative deal.
The deal will see a mix of AirTanker and RAF crews provide passenger, cargo and inflight refueling service using a core fleet of A330 aircraft, with a further five aircraft leased out to the third-party market and available for recall in an emergency.
T
he aircraft, known in RAF service as the Voyager, is scheduled to start passenger and cargo services later this year before becoming fully operational with inflight refueling capabilities in 2014.
Based at the RAF base at Brize Norton, England, the Voyager service being provided by AirTanker includes the provision of infrastructure, crew and engineer training, maintenance and ground support.
Voyager will be unable to perform the highest threat missions until its directional infrared countermeasure systems are increased from the current two units to three, after the U.K. Ministry of Defence mandated a late upgrade of defensive capabilities.
The first five aircraft will be delivered with two systems, and the first machine with three countermeasure kits is not expected to be available until mid-2013.
A second Voyager is scheduled to be delivered for operations later this year, followed by a further five next year. The nine core aircraft are scheduled for delivery by May 2014, and all 14 A330s will be available by 2016.
The new aircraft will replace the RAF’s fleet of aging Lockheed Tristars and Vickers VC-10s.
Work on resolving problems with the inflight refueling system is ongoing, and is not expected to affect the start of inflight refueling operations.
1st Voyager Takes Flight With Royal Air Force | Defense News | defensenews.com