Airbus eyes opening into U.S. military airlift market.

• Author: I. Erwin, Sandra

* Army soldiers loaded a U.S. Stryker armored personnel carrier into a U.K. Royal Air Force A400M Atlas cargo aircraft during a recent equipment evaluation exercise. The vehicle rolled into the cargo compartment, was tied down as if it were being prepped to fly into combat and later unloaded.

RAF officials hailed the Stryker load and tie-down trial as a watershed event that kicks off the process for certifying that their A400M aircraft is capable of carrying U.S. combat vehicles into battle. To military commanders, the demonstration was a step toward greater interoperability between equipment from different NATO countries. To Airbus, it marked the "soft rollout" of its A400M tactical airlifter into a tough U.S. military market that is already owned by Boeing's C-17 and Lockheed Martin's C-130 cargo aircraft.

Airbus is positioning the A400M, not as a competitor to existing cargo planes, but as an aircraft that could fill gaps in the fleet. "It is a capability that does not exist today in the U.S. inventory," said Allan McArtor, chairman and CEO of Airbus Group Inc.

McArtor is well aware of the political obstacles of selling a European plane to the Defense Department, a challenge that Airbus lost five years ago when it competed for a contract to supply refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force.

Airbus executives have been marketing the A400M at the Pentagon for some time, pointing out that it can carry heavier loads than the C-130 and can land where a C-17 can't. "It fits into a very attractive niche," McArtor told National Defense in an interview. "It's an important missing piece for U.S. airlift."

The aircraft is not yet ready for prime time. It is still experiencing growing pains and recovering from the fallout of a deadly crash in Spain last year, but the company is taking the long view.

"Given some time I think we'll have a very competitive airplane," said McArtor. The A400M also is being proposed as a refueling tanker that could land in unprepared strips. Airbus executives have computer models that show that the availability of an A400M refueling tanker would allow U.S. and NATO forces more flexibility to operate on islands where there may not be big enough airfields to land conventional tankers.

"We still have a lot of work to do to mature the airplane," said McArtor. There are still software glitches that are being fixed, not an uncommon problem in new aircraft. "It's a little early for us to have a very aggressive campaign, but it will...