SHAH ALAM: Fourth Airbus A400M Delivered. The fourth and last A400M Atlas on order has been officially accepted by RMAF at the Airbus final assembly plant in Seville, Spain, on Wednesday. The aircraft was accepted on behalf of the government by deputy Defence Minister DS Johari Baharom. Also present was RMAF chief Jen Affendi Buang and other defence ministry officials.
The acceptance documents were signed off today in Seville by the ministry and Airbus, which give the RMAF the clearance to embark the ferry flight to Subang on March 12.
The aircraft is expected to arrive at Subang on March 14 just ahead of its debut at LIMA 17. The ferry flight from Seville to Subang normally takes two days with one stop-over at the Al Bateen executive airport in Abu Dhabi. The three previous ferry flights took the same route and stop-overs.
M54-04 was supposed to be delivered in late 2016 but it was delayed following problems affecting the A400M program.
Malaysian Defence had reported previously that the fourth aircraft will be delivered in the latest tactical configuration which comes with the defensive aid sub-system, air-to-air refueling capability (receiving and providing fuel) and the ability to deliver up to 25 tonnes of cargo.
This is the capability being retrofitted on the first A400M – M54-01 – at Seville.
Hopefully, all four of the A400Ms will be cleared for all the things that they were supposed to have when we signed for them back in 2005.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (10)
why are the tudm pr acting like north korean propaganda machine, sensoring out the a400m instruments that anyone could google the pictures of other a400m's? very backwards mindset for a group of people that is supposed to make the airforce more visible to the taxpaying public and instill pride and knowledge for the people towards the air force.
defensive aid sub-system means?
Flares and electronic countermeasures?
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Yes but RMAF has never confirmed or deny it is standard fit on it's A400M.
It is uncertain whether a directive to fuzz out the instruments actually came from the top or whether it was the work of an over zealous or too diligent officer in the PR Department.
Many years ago the chap running .... reproduced an RMAF photo showing one of the HAS at Gong Kedak : he later got a call to take the photo down. As a whole, things have improved a lot since the 1980's and 1990's when it comes to things like this.
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Which HAS is that?
Can only carry 25tonnes???? It cant immediately transport Av8. Very disappointing.
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It will be increased in the future, by how much is the question.
Read something that mentioned the a400m having difficulty to refuelling helicopters. Is it true?
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Yes it is difficult for the pilots to ensure that they are at a safe distance from the A400M. Airbus has developed a solution for this, they designed a longer hose for helicopter refuelling, it has not been certified yet.
the HAS of gong kedak can easily be seen and counted by just browsing your google map on your handphone.
btw the air force actually have a HAS which is climatically controlled to preserve the MKM for each single one of the fighters. the climate control is a lesson learned from when the hawks are damaged by the heat and high humidity of our country.
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I will leave this at that....
Silly me....what is HAS?
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Hardened Aircraft Shelter
"the HAS of gong kedak can easily be seen and counted by just browsing your google map on your handphone.
btw the air force actually have a HAS which is climatically controlled to preserve the MKM for each single one of the fighters."
Well, if you had counted on google earth, you would have seen we have fewer HAS than MKMs. So the second sentence of yours is not possible.
Hopefully RMAF order 2 more A400M, so went retire C130H no need worry anymore.
@Meh
Generally, 25 tonnes is the limit for tactical operations. I.e. the aircraft can pull up to 3 g with 25 tonnes on board. It can carry single vehicles up to 32 tonnes or other freight up to 37 tonnes, but then the allowed g load is reduced. This information refers to the A400M design in general, not to a specific machine.