This new capability may strengthen Indonesia to acquire the Airbus A400M Atlas multipurpose heavy transport aircraft. As is known, at the closing of the 2021 Dubai AirShow which takes place in November 2021, Indonesia through the Indonesian Ministry of Defense officially ordered two Airbus A400M Atlas units in a tanker and transport configuration.
Not limited to two units, a Letter of Intent has also been signed for the purchase of four additional A400M units.
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And there is the latest news from Getafe, Spain, where Airbus Defense and Space (ADS) in its release (26/7/2022) said it had successfully tested a removable firefighting demonstrator kit on the A400M during a flight test campaign in Spain.
The demonstrator firefighting test campaign took place in daylight conditions with a minimum operating altitude of 150 feet (approximately 45.7 meters) with flight speeds as low as 125 knots (231 km per hour equivalent) and discharging up to 20 tonnes of water from tanks in less than 10 seconds.
ADS said the main objective of the campaign was to validate the quantity and timing of water releases and the A400M's ability to perform this new role with a removable fire fighting kit.
The development of a prototype removable firefighting demonstrator kit and its testing was carried out in collaboration with the 43rd Group of the Spanish Air Force, as well as European authorities in Firefighting operations and the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO).
"We strongly believe the A400M can play a critical role in combating the growing threat of wildfires and supporting the restoration of social and environmental systems," said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defense and Space.
The Airbus firefighting solution built for the A400M is a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) kit that requires no modification to the aircraft and is interchangeable with any aircraft in the A400M fleet.
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| Airbus A400M Atlas |
Water is stored in a fixed tank in the cargo hold by means of two independent doors. These doors are connected to two flood pipes, so that when the discharge is triggered, the water is expelled through two sections at the end of the road. The introduction of this RORO solution allows for rapid reactions to unexpected fires and reconfiguration of the aircraft into other roles/missions.
Due to its low flight capability and low speed maneuverability, the A400M can accurately drop water payloads at very low altitudes, up to 45 meters. Next, ADS will analyze the use of the firefighting demonstrator kit in night conditions.
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