LUFTWAFFE A400 MILITARY
Luftwaffe service
Originally 53 A400Ms were planned and
ordered by Germany to replace its old twin-
engine Transall C-160Ds, which are planned
to leave service around 2021. However,
in January 2011 the German parliament
reduced its requirement to 40. Under its
contract to buy the A400, Germany is
obliged to accept all 53 machines it signed
for and has since been busy trying to sell the
surplus aircraft – a recent proposed sale to
South Africa fell through.
Germany’s planned support structure
will only support 40 machines and storing
the surplus will cost money. As a result, the
German Bundesministerium für Verteidigung
Bundeswehr (BMVg or Federal Ministry
of Defense), following the example of the
successful European Air Transport Command
at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands
where seven countries, including Germany,
work closely together, brought up the idea
of a multinational transport wing. This would
mean Germany could pool its redundant
aircraft at the German reserve air base at
Lechfeld. However, there is no firm plan and
the BMVg is in the process of calculating the
possible costs of operating these aircraft.
Initial estimates put the price tag at
€505 million for configuration adaption,
maintenance and staff and €150 million for
infrastructure changes at their future air base.
Only one base is necessary to house a fleet
of 40 aircraft and, with its central position
in Germany, Wunstorf was chosen to be
upgraded to house the nation’s A400s.
According to a BMVg report to parliament,
the European A400M programme is years
behind schedule, with Germany’s share of
the costs having risen to €9.6 billion from
an initial estimate of €8.1 billion. The report
states that each of the 53 aircraft is now
estimated to cost €181 million, up from
an initial €153 million. The first A400M in
German service was delivered to Wunstorf
on December 19, 2014 with the second
delivered a year later. According to the
original delivery plan Germany should have
received 11 A400Ms in 2016, and received
a total of 17 by the end of 2017. In fact, by
the summer of 2017 only ten aircraft had
been delivered to Wunstorf, all of which
were allocated to the European Air Transport
Command (EATC) at Eindhoven Air Base inThe Netherlands.
The first two aircraft to be delivered to
the Luftwaffe were temporarily grounded
after inspections found heavy engine wear
in the PGB after only 365 and 189 hours of
operations respectively. An interim fix was
certified in July 2016. The European Aviation
Safety Agency (EASA) now requires initial
inspections of the aeroplanes after 650 flight
hours, up from 100 hours, with follow-up
inspections to be required every 150 hours,
up from the 20-hour cycle imposed after the
PGB issue emerged. Airbus, together with
the gearbox producer Italian company Avio
Aero (owned by General Electric), has been
working on a permanent solution.
A new improved gearbox was fitted to
the ninth Luftwaffe machine on the final
assembly line in Seville and all subsequent
aircraft. To date five of Germany’s operational
A400Ms have been retro-fitted with the
new PGB and this seems to have fixed the
problem. Colonel Bette, commander of
Lufttransportgeschwader 62 (LTG 62 or Air
Transport Wing 62) said: “This was the most
complex problem we have had to deal with.Besides some other issues we have made
good progress.” At the time of writing, LTG
62 has 80 A400M pilots, a number that will
eventually increase to 185. In addition, the
current establishment of 42 loadmasters will
grow to 120. Col Bette added: “The transition
to the A400M is a step into a new world for
us. Besides coming from the old twin-engine
aircraft with no fly-by-wire and HUD [head-
up display], the capability and size of the
A400M is new for us. That’s why only crew
members with seven years or more left in
service are allowed to make the transition to
the A400M.”
He continued: “For someone like me
with a history on the C-160D, the retraining
for the A400M is hard, as you will have to
delete your hard disk so to speak and then
download only new information. New pilots
will certainly encounter fewer problems. Old
habits just die hard.”
The new machine’s software has caused
particular difficulties because Airbus, with
relatively little experience of the development
of military aircraft, has relied on its civilian
airliner background. The problems thisAn aircraft commander on the flight deck of aircraft 54+08 and co-pilot looking over one of eight liquid
crystal displays on the A400’s flight deck.Luftwaffe A400 54+08 taxies at Wunstorf
clearly showing the counter-rotating eight-
blade scimitar propellers.