Born at the end of the Cold War, as a European program to acquire strategic air transport, the Airbus A-400M appears to be more and more like an incomplete project.
Despite the aerospace group's press office declaring that all problems would be solved, in the past, the company's own management team has used anything but flattering words to describe the A-400M program.
In addition, the German trade press also reports opinions from the Luftwaffe circles on the persistence of critical issues in the four-rail transport. These critical issues relate above all to the long times to convert the A-400M into a sanitary transport (at least 50 hours); the impossibility of simultaneously launching 58 paratroopers from the two side hatches, but also the inadequacy of electronic self-protection systems and the possibility of replenishing rotary wing aircraft in flight.
The Berlusconi government decided to exit the A-400M program in the 2003, preferring to completely renew the transport line of the AMI with the C-130J SUPERHERCULES, as they are already operational. Given the development times of the European project, the Italian choice proved to be a happy one, as commitments in international missions, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, necessitated air carriers capable of transporting men and vehicles to operational theaters.
Despite the problems that still afflict the Airbus, there is no doubt that the project has once again highlighted the European shyness, unable to equip itself with an aircraft that allows to project power. In fact we wanted to develop, spending considerable resources, a very un-strategic aircraft, halfway, with regard to the transport capacity and range of action, between the C-130J and the C-17 GLOBEMASTER III (photo below) .
(photo: Bundeswehr / US Air Force)
