Germany eyeing $1B Euro tanker buy in

Germany is looking at having to spend as much as $1B Euros to buy into the European tanker multinational fleet. The fleet will be bought by several nations, including Luxembourg, and The Netherlands. Poland, Germany, Norway, and Belgium are all looking at buying in. The fleet will be composed of 4 A330 MRTT aircraft. The initial payment will be in their 2017 budget, and consists of $2.5M Euros as a membership dues. Germany currently operates a fleet of four A310 aircraft as tankers.

The German military could spend up to 1 billion euros in coming years for use of new Airbus (AIR.PA) A330 MRTT tanker planes to be bought as part of a new European multinational fleet, according to a German budget document.

In a project initiated by the European Defence Agency, the new refueling aircraft will be bought by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency and be stationed at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands for pooling and sharing.

The German parliament is expected to approve this week the 2017 federal budget, which includes an initial 2.5 million euros for potential "membership dues" for Germany's participation in the new Multinational MRTT Fleet.

A report sent to parliament with the overall budget plan said Germany could spend around 1 billion euros on the program, which will replace its current fleet of four ageing A310 tankers. It gave no timetable for the expenditures.

www.reuters.com...

I have to be honest here. Given recent reports of abysmal readiness rates in not only its army but air forces, I would think money would be better spent there. Esp. since they do not meet the minimum NATO GDP amounts

But given that I feel that Airbus is basically a EU jobs program its not all that shocking

Or just retrofit an A380..?

a reply to: Blackfinger
Not that silly considering you can jam up to around 250 tonne of gas in one at max weight.

LEE.

a reply to: FredT

Now that they have the boom issues worked out, the KC-30 is turning into a pretty good tanker.