Flight Global news item
With a combined six of the aircraft now being flown by their air forces, the defence ministries of France and the UK have signed a contract covering collaborative in-service support arrangements for the Airbus A400M Atlas transport.
Announced by the nations on 8 December, the development covers initial maintenance support of the Atlas airlifter, in addition to spare parts pooling and “the establishment of maintenance engineering services to the benefit of both air forces”, the nations say in a joint statement. The contract has been placed with Airbus Defence & Space via Europe’s OCCAR procurement agency.
The UK’s Defence Equipment & Support organisation has valued its two-year contract as being worth £175 million ($274 million). France has not disclosed the size of its award, but its DGA defence procurement body says its arrangement will run from the conclusion of a current introduction to service support arrangement with Airbus in early February 2015 until September 2016.
Airbus has so far delivered five of the 50 A400Ms on order for the French air force, while the Royal Air Force’s first of 22 Atlas transports arrived at its Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire in mid-November.
I wonder how this ties in with the
previously announced Flybe's maintenance contract? Flybe = 1st & 2nd Line, Airbus = deep maintenance & repair etc?