Indonesia’s First Airbus A400M On Final Approach

INDONESIA’S first of two Airbus A400M airlifters has now entered the Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Seville, Spain. It marks a major milestone in the production of the A400M, production number MSN148 and is on schedule for its delivery date by the end of 2025.

A release from Airbus Defence and Space stated, “During this phase of assembly, key production milestones have been completed, including the attachment of the Horizontal Tail Plane (HTP) to the Vertical Tail Plane (VTP) and the integration of the wings to the fuselage.”

The Indonesian defence ministry ordered two A400Ms in multirole tanker and transport configuration at the 2021 Dubai Airshow to boost the Indonesian Air Force’s operational flexibility, supporting strategic and tactical missions, humanitarian assistance, medical evacuation, and aerial refuelling. Indonesia also signed a letter of intent for potentially four more A400Ms.

Upon its arrival, Indonesia would be the second operator of the A400M in Southeast Asia after Malaysia began operations with a fleet of four A400Ms since 2015 . The A400M has been delivered to nine countries to date, most recently to Kazakhstan and has accumulated more than 200,000 flight hours and carrying out various missions including humanitarian assistance. -shp/adj/dl (Pix:AIRBUS)