The first Turkish A400M built by the multinational Airbus Military consortium arrived in Turkey in December and has been undergoing acceptance tests.
Turkey plans to receive a batch of 10 aircraft in the next two to three years.
A procurement official familiar with the program said there have been a couple of “minor problems” with the first aircraft and the acceptance tests have not yet been completed. “These are not major difficulties and we hope the tests would be completed soon”.
The aircraft arrived at the 221st Air Fleet in Kayseri in central Turkey.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is manufacturing the main fuselage for all 174 A400Ms to be produced as part of this international program. Turkey, a 5.5 percent shareholder of the program, hopes business for local companies will increase as more aircraft are produced for export markets.
Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and Britain joined in the program that, together with export customer Malaysia, has garnered 174 orders.
Among the other significant A400M operators, Britain is scheduled to get its first aircraft next year and German deliveries will follow in 2015.
defensenews
No comments:
Post a Comment