A MILITARY HUB
In 2017, Niamey saw 3,000 aircraft movements and received more than 45,000
passengers and 6,000 tons of freight. When troops are rotating and moving in and
out of the region, 250-300 people must be fed and housed every day as they transit
between tactical and long-haul aircraft, from the Sahel to France and vice versa.
In April 2017, a sandstorm knocked out N’Djamena airport in Chad, the other French
logistic hub in the Sahel region. Flights had to be diverted to the base, which then had
to house 1,000 soldiers at very short notice.Above left to
right: An A400M
pilot at the
controls heading
for an austere
landing strip.
Inside an
A400M, low over
the desert. The
type deploys
down-range but
is not currently
permanently
based at
Niamey.
The A400Ms
have proved
valuable for
resupply
missions in
the region, but
cannot air-drop
supplies at
present.In the heat of the summer,
Gao-bound Transalls get airborne in the
early hours with no more than ve tons
of cargo. However, the A400M can
launch at any time during the day with
more than 20 tons of cargo and all the
fuel needed to reach any runway in the
region and back. It puts the advances of
the Atlas into perspective. ‘When we put
the A400M in service at Orléans, in two
months we had transported the
equivalent of both the C-160 and C-130
eet in a year,’ says a deployed A400M
captain on the base. The A400M is fast,
powerful, and its operational capabilities
are growing fast. That said, it is still
unable to air-drop loads, which means
the C-160s remain in demand for the
air-delivery of fuel, ammunition, food
and supplies to French forces patrolling
in the desert.Tankers in demand
Sharing the transport ramp at Niamey is a
permanently deployed C-135. This
air-refueler stands on quick reaction alert
around the clock and is here chie y for the
bene t of the four ghters that y out of
Niamey. It is also used to supply
N’Djamena (Chad)-based aircraft, and
leaves France with su cient fuel for a
200-hour ight time — enough to remain
in Niger for about ve weeks! The KC-135
present when CA visited was one of the
three examples to have been tted with
upgraded avionics and assigned to the 31e
Escadre Aérienne de Ravitaillement et de
Transport Stratégiques. This trio is slightly
newer than the 11 C-135FRs of the French
Air Force. They are relatively low-houred
(sub-20,000) compared with the 30,000
hours of the C-135FR eet, and will
therefore probably be the last to beThe A400M has
transformed the French
Air Force’s transport
capabilities in Africa.http://www.combataircraft.net // September 2018 85
The A400M is
fast, powerful,
and its operational
capabilities are
growing fast. That
said, it is still unable to
air-drop loads,
which means
the C-160s
remain in
demand
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