Airbus delivers first MRTT to NATO group
On 29 June Airbus confirmed that it had delivered the first A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft to the NATO Multinational MRTT Fleet (MMF).
The aircraft was handed over at a special ceremony held at the company’s Getafe site in Spain but will be based at Eindhoven, Netherlands. It will be jointly operated by crews from the MMF participant nations, comprised of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway.
Dirk Hoke, CEO of Airbus Defence & Space, said: ‘The NATO MMF programme perfectly represents the future of defence cooperation and shows the true success of the pooling and sharing concept.’
The European Defence Agency (EDA) initiated the MMF programme in 2012 with the MRTTs being configured for in-flight refuelling, transporting cargo and passengers and performing medical evacuations.
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