FRENCH MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

PRESS PACKAGE

Monday 30th September 2013

Official ceremony to welcome

the new military transport aircraft

- the A400M Atlas -

to the French Air Force

Contact: French Air Force information and public relations service

SIRPA AIR | Media Department Tel: +33.1.45.52.90.78. Fax: +33.1.45.52.90.65.

1

On Monday 30th September 2013, on Orleans air base 123, the Minister of Defence, Jean-Yves Le Drian, will preside over the military ceremony marking the arrival of the French Air Force’s new A400M Atlas military transport aircraft. The arrival of the multi-role strategic and tactical aircraft within the French Air Force is the culmination of the largest defence programmes in Europe. This ceremony follows on from the official delivery ceremony held the same morning on the Airbus Military industrial site in Seville, Spain. Programme 14h15 The Minister arrives on board an A400M from the Airbus Military industrial

site in Seville

Military ceremony

14h30 Naming of the A400M Atlas followed by a speech by the Minister

15h30 Minister departs

15h40 Visit to the A400M training centre

Signature of the Franco-German A400M training partnership by General Denis Mercier, Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, and General Karl Müllner, his counterpart in the Luftwaffe

2

Contents

The A400M and the orientations of the MPA regarding air transport p.03

A major European defence programme p.04

A new dimension for French military air transport p.05

Orleans: ground-breaking base for French military air transport p.06

On-going experiments in the A400M MEST p.07

Training: a key challenge p.10

In the front line of A400M support: the Service industriel de l'aéronautique (aeronautical industrial service) p.12

3

The A400M and the orientations of the MPA

regarding air transport With the publication of the White Paper on defence and national security on 29th April 2013, France defined a long-term vision shaped by recent changes in the strategic and economic context, as well as by updated national defence and security objectives; it also defined a new model for its armed forces, which will be achieved by about 2025-2030. The White Paper thus reflected the latest French strategic thinking concerning the state of the world and the threats posed, as well as national ambitions, interests and priorities. For the Ministry of Defence, the 2014-2019 Military Planning Act (MPA) is the first step in the implementation of these new strategic orientations. It gives tangible form to the conclusions of the White Paper and the orientations of defence policy in terms of financial, capacity, industrial and human resources. The MPA in particular officialises the political aims contained in the White Paper on essential points such as the principle of strategic independence within the new armed forces model, the capacity for rapid intervention in all the missions entrusted to the armed forces, or support for a dynamic defence industry, both domestically and for export.

With regard to air transport, the introduction of the A400M Atlas with the French Air Force addresses the main goals set for the armed forces by the MPA, following on from the latest White Paper. The capacity of this new cargo aircraft will give France guaranteed flexibility, rapidity of response and strategic independence. The impact of the programme on the aeronautical sector in France From the industrial standpoint, even if the European aircraft is assembled in Spain, the A400M programme contributes to supporting the French aeronautical transport sector: the programme as a whole today concerns 40,000 direct jobs in Europe, including 12,000 direct jobs in France. This represents more than 80 companies, including a whole host SMEs/SMIs, spread over 150 sites nationwide, as well as several hundred tier 2 and 3 subcontractors.

4

A major European defence programme The entry into service of a common aircraft will considerably enhance the growth of European military air transport , both by the high level of interoperability expected and by the prospects for support and training common to the various nations. Through the A400M, Europe is proving that it can successfully carry out an ambitious Governmental and industrial project. The Atlas has today become the symbol of successful European cooperation. France is the leading customer for the European programme, which is the result of collaboration by 7 partner countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. This first delivery is the culmination of a lengthy, complex and painstaking process carried out in collaboration with the Government teams from the partner nations and the industrial teams from Airbus Military. As with any defence programme, delivery takes place once 3 major stages have been completed: certification , qualification and acceptance. Joint qualification verifies that the definition of the aircraft is in compliance with the contract and that initial performance specifications are met. Following work carried out by the 7 nations, the IOC (Initial operating clearance) certificate was issued on 31st July 2013.

For the first time in aeronautical history, the aircraft will have dual civil and military certification . Civil certification was granted by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as is the case for any civil aircraft produced in a European country, while French military certification was granted by the French defence procurement agency (DGA) on 24th July, with signing of the military type certificate. A look back at the beginnings of a long-haul programme In the mid-1990s, in an unprecedented strategic context, requiring rapid deployment of troops and heavy and voluminous materiel, several European countries expressed the same need: acquire an aircraft capable of handling both tactical and strategic transport missions. After investigating a number of possibilities with international suppliers, Europe decided to invest. France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain committed themselves to the project, while Belgium, Luxembourg and Turkey joined it at a later date.

In 2003, following several years of negotiations, the contract was signed, with Airbus Military winning the contract as lead contractor. In so doing, it agreed to take up the challenge of producing an aircraft with particularly ambitious performance. State and industry players therefore got together around what was to become the largest European military programme. Acting on behalf of the 7 participating nations, the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) coordinated this project, drawing on the proven expertise and experience of each partner country. For France, owing to its experience in running defence programmes and its knowledge of French armed forces requirements, the DGA was involved well upstream of the project and set up a team dedicated to programme oversight.

THE A400M PROGRAMME – A FEW KEY DATES 1996 Expression of joint requirements 2003 Signing of the contract (31st May) 2009 Renegotiation of the contract – 1st flight (11th December) 2013 Delivery of the first A400M (1st August to the DGA, 2nd August to the French Air Force) -

Another will be delivered to the French Air Force by the end of the year 2014 Level 1 operational service entry (logistical missions and certain tactical missions such as

landing on rough airfields and cargo dropping) - Opening of the A400M training centre in Orleans

5

A new dimension

for French military air transport The A400M Atlas is crucial to the renewal and modernisation of the French Air Forces fleet of tactical transport aircraft . It will gradually replace the C-160 Transall as it is retired from service (in service since 1967) and will supplement the fleet of C-130 Hercules (in service since 1987 and the upgraded version of which should be operational in 2018). As a tactical transport aircraft (it can operate from rough fields in a hostile environment) with strategic reach (it can cover distances of several thousand kilometres without refuelling), the A400M Atlas meets the current need of the armed forces to respond to modern crises and conflicts. It also enables France to play its European defence role as well as operating within international organisations such as NATO and the UN. The multi-role transport aircraft will enable the French Air Force to optimise several of its fundamental missions:

- the force projection mission: this comprises the ability to be first into a theatre of operations and stay there for a period of time, the possibility of deploying a forward air base, of delivering combat materiel and providing air support close to the actual operations;

- evacuation of French nationals and humanitarian missions; - inter-ministerial assistance missions: these include all missions carried out within

metropolitan and overseas France in the event of natural or industrial disasters. Thanks to the volume of its cargo bay, the power of its engines, its extreme manoeuvrability and its self-protection capability, the A400M Atlas will be able to carry out all traditional tactical transport aircraft missions (air bridges between and within theatres, airfield assault on rough airfields, air-dropping of materiel and personnel, in-flight refuelling, medevac) on an entirely new scale. The A400M Atlas is the technological benchmark and has no equivalent on the world market. Its characteristics are exceptional – for example:

- 8,700 km non-stop range (Paris-Johannesburg); - 340 m3 cargo bay volume (1 Atlas = 2 Hercules = 4 Transall); - payload nearly 4 times greater than that of a Transall while talking half the time to

cover the same distance (the Atlas carries 21 t. of cargo in 8 hours on a 5,000 km flight from Paris to Dakar, while the Transall carries 6 t. in 2 days);

- ability to fly at low altitude of 500 feet (= 150 metres) without exterior visibility using digital file based terrain profile matching;

- 15 days independent operations without major preventive maintenance. The aircraft is also equipped with all the latest features:

- A380 generation avionics; - link 16 (tactical datalink);

- NGV (night vision goggles) capability;

- digital mission preparation system (MPRS).

6

Orleans: ground-breaking base

for French military air transport The Orleans air base, one of the French Air Force’s largest, with more than 2,500 personnel on-site, has in just a few years become the nerve centre of military air transport in France.

Historically, it has been a military air transport platform since the mid-1950s and is today fully focused on the future of this mission. It is at present home to 2 transport squadrons (2/61 “Franche-Comté” equipped with Hercules and 3/61 “Poitou” handling special operations), an aeronautical technical support squadron for aircraft maintenance, the transport crews training centre, the C-160 Transall and C-130 Hercules specialised training unit, the all-new A400M Training Centre and the A400M Multinational Entry into Service Team (MEST A400M). The first operational A400M transport squadron 1/61 “Touraine”) will also be stationed on the base, which will be the sole Atlas support platform. Major infrastructure works have been scheduled in recent years to prepare for the arrival of the A400M on the base: pollution clean-up, refurbishment of roads network, burial of high-voltage power lines, modernisation of the control tower, renovation of aeronautical pavements, the de-icing area, the ground run-up area in order to reduce noise pollution for the surrounding populations, the compass swinging area, the building of new metal hangars optimised for maintenance operations and the A400M training centre, etc. Finally, the main runway will be refurbished in 2017 to increase its lifetime. The necessary work should continue for about a further ten years. Atlas MSN07 named “city of Orleans” To underscore the special relationship between military transport aviation and the airbase and indeed the extent to which the aeronautical sector is rooted in the region, the French Air Force’s first A400M Atlas, MSN07, will be named “city of Orleans” on the occasion of the official ceremony to welcome to aircraft to the forces, on 30th September 2013.

This patronage has meaning for aviators: it is a way of recalling more than a century of aeronautical history in the Orleans region, which began in 1908 with Louis Blériot’s first flight in the area before his crossing of the Channel. The airfield which predated the existing airbase is as old as the French Air Force itself and was built near Orleans in 1932, as a joint initiative by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Loiret region and the new Air Ministry, with the aim of accommodating an aeronautical equipment test centre and a test platform for engines and propellers. The Orleans base became a transport platform in the 1950s and was home to the “Touraine”, “Poitou” and “Franche-Comté” squadrons, with the Noratlas forces arriving in 1954. It became home to the Transall in 1967 and then, twenty years later, to the Hercules.

More recently, in 2008, the teams from the transport crew training centre and the A400M Multinational Entry into Service Team were installed on airbase 123 to prepare the future of French military air transport, in Orleans.

7

On-going experiments

in the MEST A400M The French Air Force has finally received its first A400M Atlas and the crews of the military air experimentation centre (CEAM) have begun a lengthy period of in-depth evaluations. In Orleans, the MEST (Multinational Entry into Service Team) has been tasked with all preparations for service entry of the A400M, and with the design and production of the experimentation programme. It should be noted that as the A400M is a multinational project, English was chosen as the language for the various entities employed, even in the acronyms used. Five pillars The MEST is divided into five different entities, each with a primary mission in the four-engine aircraft’s entry into service with the French Air Force:

- experimentation, - operation, by the officers of the future first Atlas squadron, - training, creation of the future A400M training entity, - support, by the A400M component of the aeronautical technical support squadron and,

beyond the MEST, by the SIAé, - maintained airworthiness management.

“The five pillars have been grouped together for greater efficiency and speed, optimising the management of a critical resource which consists of a single aircraft during the first weeks, thus avoiding redundancy and duplication and thus ensuring the best possible management”, explains Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Creuset, Head of the MEST. Strict selection The preparations for welcoming the Atlas began many years ago and manning levels have been gradually and regularly increased. In September 2013, there were 210 MEST personnel. For the crews and the technicians, the selection process in particular required good English language skills. The pilots and the technicians selected for the MEST all come from a variety of backgrounds bringing specific skills to the construction of the final edifice. For example, the mechanics have experience with the Xingu, Hercules, Transall, C-135FR and even the Rafale (the latest-generation systems to be found on-board the twin-engine fighter are to a certain extent similar to those today installed on-board the Atlas). The MEST is also working within an integrated team with DGA Flight Testing, to avoid duplicating flight hours by the two centres. The same sortie may therefore include a pure testing phase and an experimentation phase. This is why the DGA has assigned to the MEST a flight test engineer who will work alongside 3 test pilots and a test parachutist, already in place within the unit.

8

Comprehensive experimentation As with all new materiel entering service with the French Air Force, CEAM specialists will be testing the Atlas to the extreme in order to check that it meets the need and to draft the various manuals to be used by the flight and maintenance crews. This procedure, spread over several years, is highly complex and the content of each flight is detailed in a document of three to four pages. It is therefore easy to imagine the volume of work the MEST will have accomplished once the experiment has been completed. For the technicians alone, 1,458 tasks to be carried out have been identified. This includes all aspects of aircraft deployment and troubleshooting operations: towing, engine and propeller changes, removal/installation of a flap or rudder, wheel change, removal/installation of an APU, replacement of the IRS/GPS hybrid navigation system and so on. The mechanics will be working on a three-shift basis to make best use of the time available, from 6 am to 10 pm, six days a week. For A400M maintenance, the technicians will have access to a whole range of new equipment, which will undergo testing that is just as severe: elevator cradles going higher than those of the Transall and Hercules in order to be able to work right up to the top of the tail, more powerful tugs because of the greater weight involved, electronic management systems, etc. An all-new paperless organisation is being adopted by the different maintenance departments. Until 2018 Experimentation will continue until at least 2018, as industry supplies the French Air Force with new aircraft standards. The first two aircraft are delivered by Airbus to IOC (Initial Operational Clearance) standard, offering functionalities limited to logistical flights only. The third production aircraft, intended for Turkey, was also built in the IOC version. The fourth production Atlas (the third for France), built to SOC 1 (Standard Operating Clearance) standard will offer new tactical functionalities, more specifically the ability to air-drop payloads and personnel. Other upgrades will include integration of increasingly advanced functionalities as time goes by, including automatic terrain following and in-flight refuelling via the flying tanker role (for fighters or EC725 Caracal helicopters). The long-term planning of the experimentation phase began many months ago and Atlas compatibility with a certain number of platforms (primarily Istres and Mont-de-Marsan) will need to be ensured rapidly, so that they can be cleared for use of the A400M as quickly as possible. “Initially, we only make Orleans-Orleans flights for finalising initial pilot training, starting the first experiments and completing training of the mechanics”, underlines Lieutenant-Colonel Creuset. “Verifying the accessibility of French airbases and of various airports in France and indeed abroad is crucial in ensuring that the A400M will be able to use external airfields for operational purposes. We will also have to define secondment conditions in terms of volume of maintenance personnel, crewmembers, spare parts and tooling. Once we have fully mastered the aircraft, we will push the envelope further and deal with airfield assault, very low altitude flying, night-time missions with night vision goggles and electronic warfare and threat response. Only later will in-flight refuelling be added to the programme.” Strong Franco-British cooperation Four British representatives (one engineer, one logistics specialist and two technicians, who will be joined by a pilot and a loadmaster very shortly) are already part of the MEST, in order to gain initial experience on the Atlas, even before the first aircraft has been delivered to the Royal Air Force. This cooperation with the RAF is actually of benefit to both countries, as pooling experience and know-how helps improve joint procedures with a view to improved interoperability. This sharing of experience extends to the personnel and the second in command of the MEST benefited from time on an RAF C-130J where he was able to gain first-hand experience of Glass Cockpit technology.

9

The United Kingdom has acquired a cargo bay simulator for loading tests and for training its personnel in operating procedures. As part of the policy of sharing between the two countries, France should have access to this equipment.

Finally, discussions are also under way to set up Franco-British cooperation on in-service support, ranging from common pooling of spare parts to the performance of maintenance inspections.

10

Training: a key challenge The A400M training centre will be operational in 2014. A 6,000 m2 building has been constructed to accommodate the future French and foreign trainees in an environment reflecting the image of the aircraft itself, in other words, ultra-modern. In addition to the numerous classrooms (where all classes will be given entirely in English), the training centre has a workshop and 4 simulators, which are among the most advanced on the market. The pilots will thus carry out some of their training on Full Flight Simulators (FFS) adapted for tactical situations and the mechanics will have access to a Cockpit Maintenance Operations Simulator (CMOS) and a Loadmaster Workstation Trainer (LMWST): nothing short of a revolution. Operations to qualify the FFS and the LMWST are currently in progress under the supervision of the DGA, and should be completed in late November 2013. Training of the first instructors began in early 2013. In the same way as for its mechanics, the French Air Force wanted to have the greatest possible diversity in its crews and all of the initial trainers were highly experienced captains with an average of 3,000 to 4,000 hours flying time behind them. The pilots are from a wide range of backgrounds, with a diversity of experience on Transall, Hercules, C-130J, A340 (to combine Airbus philosophies), Casa (also a product of Airbus Military) and, soon, even Rafale, in order to share another approach to tactical flying, using a modern self-protection system and Link 16. The first ten pilots, the first four co-pilots (NOSA) and the first eight loadmasters have been trained by Airbus Military, in Toulouse and Seville. Of these ten pilots, four completed the course in April 2013 and six the following July. The four officers from the first class were trained on an A380 simulator (because its cockpit environment is in many ways very similar to that of the A400M) and then on that used to develop the Atlas. They then each flew nine missions, totalling 27 hours, in order to obtain their military pilot’s licence. Their six colleagues received training on the A400M simulator. A total of 71 mechanics took the training course at Airbus to create the pool of maintenance specialists who will look after the first few A400M. “The entire recruitment process is built around experimentation and entry into service”, says Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Creuset, Head of the MEST. “Right from the outset, we wanted to have just the right number of personnel, for example with a ratio of two crews per aircraft.”

11

Complete environment The aircraft environment is delivered at the same time as the aircraft itself and all the peripheral systems will also need to have undergone in-depth experimentation by the MEST teams. The Level C flight simulator which will allow significant optimisation of the number of flight hours, including for the tactical phases, has been received. It is currently being installed and integrated, for entry into service in November 2013. Airbus and Thales will have joint crew training responsibility for issue of type qualification for logistical flights. However, tactical qualifications will be given by military instructors. Installation of the loadmaster workstation simulator used to learn how to operate the rear control console, is also well-advanced. The training centre already has the server which supplies all the computers used by the crews and technicians during the ground-based classes. The MEST must test all these tools in order to check that they function correctly and must define the course contents and the simulation sessions. A database supplied by Airbus is already available but it will need to be adapted in order to more closely match the requirements of the French Air Force. Franco-German training partnership One of the major objectives of the A400M programme is improved interoperability, for greater standardisation of aircraft operations among the various partner countries. Several international working groups are meeting regularly under the auspices of the European Air Transport Command (EATC) in order to define operational procedures and a joint training curriculum.

With regard to training, pooling of resources is already a reality. The signing of the 30th September 2013 Franco-German technical arrangement concerning A400M training of crews and mechanics ratifies the conditions of the partnership uniting France and Germany on this project.

Training of aeronautical maintenance mechanics for the A400M will eventually take place on Wunstorf airbase in Germany (as of the summer of 2015), along with crew type training and logistical mission training. Crew training for tactical missions will take place in the A400M training centre on the Orleans airbase (starting in 2014 for the French trainees and as of 2018 for their German colleagues).

12

In the front line of A400M support:

the Service industriel de l'aéronautique

(aeronautical industrial service) To be able to support the A400M fleet’s airframes and engines, the Service industriel de l'aéronautique (SIAé) first of all invested in the aeronautical industrial workshop (AIA) in Clermont-Ferrand (AIA-CF) and that in Bordeaux (AIA-BX). In late 2012, the DGA then awarded a contract to the SIAé for creation of an industrial support capability for the A400M. This contract concerns industrialisation services for airframe maintenance (such as C-check inspections) in the Clermont-Ferrand AIA (AIA-CF) and for ML2-Off maintenance (i.e. module removal and installation) of engines in the Bordeaux AIA (AIA-BX). These resources are currently being deployed at SIAé, in line with the aircraft’s schedule. In Bordeaux, the first three turn-over stands, used for engine module removals, are in place along with their associated tooling. The personnel have been trained. The Bordeaux AIA is the only organisation in Europe which has received all the necessary approvals for performance of this work. The engine test bed is currently being built and should be operational in early 2014, at which time it will be one of only two TP400 test beds in Europe, the other being that dedicated to production at MTU in Berlin. In Clermont, the first personnel have already been trained and the various investments are under way. The support contract for the French A400M, awarded in early 2013 to Airbus Military, designates the SIAé as the Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) centre for airframe (AIA-CF) and engine (AIA-BX) support. The SIAé can potentially support A400M fleets for foreign countries within the fields of expertise it has developed. It has in fact already been contacted in this respect, although as yet no contracts have been signed.