New technology additions will keep A330 MRTT ahead of the competition: Airbus
20 December 2022
Airbus is furthering its pursuit of new technologies for use with the A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT), as it eyes major additional sales opportunities for the type.
Buoyed by the certification in mid-2022 of its A3R automatic boom refuelling enhancement for the adapted widebody – initially for use by the Republic of Singapore Air Force – Airbus is now planning to trial a further iteration of the system from next year.
The planned
A4R version will bring the ability to perform the in-flight refuelling of unmanned vehicles.
Airbus will from 2023 trial the viability of automatically refuelling tactical unmanned air vehicles in flight. To be performed in tandem with the company’s UpNext technology accelerator unit, the pending A4R trials will involve its A310 MRTT testbed and an Airbus Do-DT25 tactical UAS.
https://d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net/P ... 972118.jpg“The demonstration will go step by step: formation flight, control, and then refuelling. What is extremely critical initially is to ensure the safety of close flight, the controllability and the resilience of the control systems where you control the drone from the [tanker] aircraft.”
As with the company’s in-service A3R technology, the enhancement will be based on the use of the MRTT’s fly-by-wire-controlled refuelling boom. Ground-based testing is scheduled to begin at the company’s Getafe site near Madrid in January 2023.
Expected to run over a two-year period, the activity also will involve using simulated additional unmanned aircraft, to eventually represent a six-strong formation of receivers, Airbus... describes the technology development work as “a feeder for what a remote carrier may need” for use as part of a European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) capability.
Airbus also is pursuing the integration of additional new capabilities for the A330 MRTT, identifying work to enhance its self-protection equipment and provide extended connectivity; the latter to enable the platform to support FCAS operations.“With the tanker becoming more and more a key asset, we need to have a level of self-protection more comparable to what we have on some fighters,” he notes.
Meanwhile, Airbus has so far delivered 54 examples from a total of 66 ordered by 14 nations. “We see a very promising worldwide market, [of] around 90 aircraft in the couple of decades to come.”
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