Posted on 02/20/2010 8:27:23 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
EADS North America has offered a plan for the US Air Force to purchase 118 Airbus A400Ms using savings from retiring most Lockheed Martin C-130Hs and all C-5As.
The EADS proposal was submitted last year to the Air Mobility Command (AMC) upon their request, says Neil F. Smith, director of A400M programme for EADS NA.
The concept proposes to stand-up about eight squadrons of A400Ms within the US mobility force structure, Smith says. "We get a very good reception" at AMC, Smith says.
EADS has been seeking to introduce the A400M in the US market for several years, arguing that the increasing size of ground vehicles has out-grown the box size of Lockheed's C-130. The A400M features a 3.96m (13ft) cabin diameter, versus the C-130 family's 2.74m-wide cargo bay.
The size difference would allow the army to load an armoured Stryker vehicle on the A400M, Smith says.
In response, a Lockheed executive challenged EADS' assumptions about the cost of the A400M, especially with the programme currently in negotiations with European governments over a reportedly $7 billion cost overrun.
"I think that's the ultimate in fuzzy math," says Jim Grant, Lockheed vice president of business development for air mobility and special operations programmes.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty about the programme's financing, EADS plans to continue making a big push in the US market. One of the programme's test aircraft could even travel to the US in early 2011 for a marketing tour, the company says.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightglobal.com ...
Not that I know of, but their control software seems to take a shit at the most inopportune times.
Plus it'd probably come with the avionic equivalent of OnScar. Get in a war with Germany and all your cargo planes mysteriously keep going for a swim mid-Atlantic.
Looks like your info is a little more than a decade out of date.
"The latest C-130 to be produced, the C-130J entered the inventory in February 1999."
http://www.403wg.afrc.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=3444
I am sorry. Thank you very much for the correction.
:)
The C-130J is in production. Being flown by the USAF and others right now.
I am sorry. Thank you very much for the correction.
:)
No sweat, your welcome.
f the size comparison data is accurate and the C-130 can't carry strykers, OK they have a point. But C-5s? The behemoth of the sky? dunno.If I'm not mistaken the C-130 is one of the finest aircraft ever built and unless all cargo is C-5 size it makes no sense.
What next? Retire pick-ups and buy more 5 tons tonnes...from europe?
Vs
I don't think so.
And while I’m fact checking,
“The A400M features a 3.96m (13ft) cabin diameter, versus the C-130 family’s 2.74m-wide cargo bay. “
The C-130 is only 2.74m high, but it is 3.12 meters wide. Don’t know if the Airbus numbers are correct.
Any review this to see how bad they’re chopping? It’s terrible.
http://www.defense.gov/qdr/images/QDR_as_of_12Feb10_1000.pdf
Ping.
And just what is the need for something in this range? We have somewhat less capacity in the small, cheap, abundant C-130, and a hell of a lot more in the somewhat bigger C-17 (in which we can carry up to an M-1). Why do we need this middle-sized plane?
Secretary Gates would have the answers to all these questions. And they are good questions too.
I’d go for the AN-70 over the Airbus.
Nice size plane
Uhhhh...been in production for over ten years.
BS
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