The alternative missions that Airbus plans for the A400M and that Spain could assume

The Airbus A400M Atlas made its first flight on December 11, 2009. In a few months, it will celebrate its 16th anniversary as a successful aircraft.

Remote Carriers: Airbus' project to convert the A400M into an aircraft carrier airplane
Airbus tests in Spain a kit to convert the A400M into a firefighting plane

Currently, there are already more than 130 A400Ms in service in nine countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Spain, the United Kingdom), and next year another operator will be added to this list: Indonesia. The A400M has proven to be an excellent platform for tactical and strategic transport, medical evacuation, and in-flight refueling using the hose and drum system.

However, these uses of the A400M are very few when compared to the abundant variants of one of its American competitors, the C-130 Hercules, which has been used for decades in transport missions, in-flight refueling, close air support, special operations, psychological warfare, maritime patrol, reconnaissance, meteorology, firefighting, electronic warfare, drone carrier aircraft and even bombing.

So, the A400M has many capabilities to explore and in fact Airbus Defence and Space has already started to show some of its future uses, as we can see in this video published today by this European aeronautical company on its YouTube channel:

Remote Carriers: a mothership for drones

One of the missions this video exposes is the Remote Carriers project that we saw here in November 2021, which would turn the A400M into a drone launch platform within the framework of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, with which Germany, Spain and France intend to launch around 2040 a sixth-generation fighter that will have a "combat cloud" whose pillars would be an A400M with the capacity to carry 12 heavy drones or 50 smaller drones.

The A400M as an airborne communications hub

The A400M also plans to bring another capability to the FCAS project: an airborne communications hub. "At the heart of FCAS lies the Combat Cloud. This is where critical data comes together, is analysed and then disseminated. All of this requires a quick data exchange. Without it, responding promptly and effectively to complex situations would be impossible," Airbus notes.

Airbus adds: "In the context of connectivity, the A400M could act as a communications hub, distributing information to other airborne and ground-based systems. As a military aircraft with civil certification, the A400M is equipped with encrypted radio systems and the communication tools of passenger aircraft. All of these fall under the category of narrowband communications, which operate at low data rates as they are primarily designed to transmit voice and basic data. In the future, the A400M will need to switch to broadband to leverage higher data rates. A broadband satellite connection would then enable the aircraft to send and receive large amounts of data from anywhere in the world. In the event of disrupted satellite communication, a line-of-sight system would facilitate communication along a direct sightline with other platforms in the air or on the ground."

The kit that turns the A400M into a firefighting aircraft

Another of the possible missions of the A400M was seen here in December 2023: firefighting aircraft. Around that time, Airbus tested its A400M Firefighter Demo Kit Mk2 in Spain, a Roll-on/Roll-off firefighting equipment that allows the A400M to be converted into a firefighting aircraft, with water or retardant. The tests with both fluids were carried out at the Maneuver and Shooting Range (CMT) in Uceda (Guadalajara), with the participation of personnel from the 43rd Group of the Spanish Air Force, which operates Canadair CL-215T and CL-415 firefighting aircraft.

Airbus highlights that "any A400M in a fleet could be swiftly converted into a firefighting aircraft. The kit enables the aircraft to deliver 20,000 litres of water or retardant in a single drop, creating high concentration lines of up to 400 metres in length. Combined with its ability to operate from short and unpaved runways, this capability could transform the way fires in remote or hard-to-reach areas are tackled."

The A400M as an electronic warfare aircraft

The above capabilities are likely to be used in Spain in the future. There is another that would also be of great interest to our country: electronic warfare, a capability that the Air Force lost years ago, with the withdrawal from service of the Falcon 20 TM.11 "Brujo" and the Boeing 707 TM.17-4 "Reina del Espectro" of the 47th Mixed Air Force Group, a unit dissolved in 2022 and whose missions were assumed by the Aerospace Intelligence and Targeting Center (CINTAER), which currently does not have aircraft.

Regarding this, Airbus states: "The A400M is already equipped with a variety of state-of-the-art self-defence mechanisms. And it will become even safer: Airbus will equip 23 A400Ms of the German Air Force with DIRCM protection systems, protecting them against infrared-guided missiles. Regarding active jamming, the A400M could also be used as a stand-off jammer platform that operates outside of the contested airspace and can disable enemy systems from a safe distance."

In its video, Airbus also raises the possibility of increasing the payload of the A400M, which would likely involve introducing a longer model than the current ones, as has already happened with the C-130 Hercules. What is missing from the video is a maritime patrol variant, perhaps because Airbus has concentrated that capability in the CN-295 Persuader.

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Images: Airbus / Ejército del Aire.