Airbus C295 For Brunei

Brunei’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) has signed the certificate of Customer Acceptance Test for their first Airbus C295MW aircraft during a ceremony at Airbus Defence and Space San Pablo in Seville, Spain. Representing Brunei’s MOD was the Royal Brunei Air Force’s (RBAF) Major (U) Arif Shamirul Salleh, while Airbus Defence and Space was represented by Pablo Alvaro as Head of Resident Project Office.

Also attending the ceremony was Commander of the RBAF, Brigadier General (U) Mohd Sharif Ibrahim, accompanied by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and the Second Minister of Defence, Major General (R) Halbi Mohd Yussof, and the Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, Major General Muhammad Haszaimi Bol Hassan.

The Airbus is the first aircraft in a contract that was signed in Dec 2022 for a total of four C295MWs which will supersede the CN235-110M which has served in the RBAF in various capacities. A second aircraft is also due for its Customer Acceptance Test in Jan 2024, where both aircraft are slated to be flown to Brunei for handover later in the month where the RBAF will then conduct a Site Acceptance Test.

The new C295MWs can take on such roles including as Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, Medevac (Medical Evacuations), NEO (Non-combatant Evacuation Operations) and SAR (Search and Rescue operations). Furthermore, the C295MW can be configured to carry out troop and cargo transport, VIP transport, cargo drops, along with Military Freefall (MFF) and airborne static parachute jumps. shp/adj/dl (Pix:Brunei Mindef)