NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke at a defense industry meeting as part of the NATO summit in Ankara. Rutte announced that the alliance will launch a strategic air fleet consisting of Airbus A400M transport aircraft and will add another aircraft to the existing A330 MRTT tanker fleet.
Rutte said, "Air power is vital to strengthening our deterrence and defense." Allies also announced billions of dollars in arms deals, aiming to show they are heeding US President Donald Trump's calls for more spending on Europe's defense.
The MRTT fleet, consisting of nine A330 aircraft based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, also has the capacity to transport troops or passengers. NATO aims to expand this fleet to 12 aircraft in the long term to fill gaps in defense plans following the reduction of US contributions. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden are participating in the current program.
The strategic A400M fleet will be formed with the participation of Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Turkey, Croatia, and Poland. Airbus stated that this announcement is a significant boost for the A400M program. Exports of the A400M, designed to fill Europe's military cargo and troop transport gap, had been slow until now.
The new fleet will initially consist of aircraft already in service, with aircraft from the production line to be added later. An Airbus spokesperson said the operation could lead to new orders in the future, but it was too early to speculate on numbers and timing.
Although details of the cuts to US defense contributions have not been made public, according to a military source, the cuts cover a wide range from refueling aircraft to fighter jets, and from drones to ships. Trump has long criticized European governments for being overly dependent on the US for defense.
