PARIS – Britain and France have awarded a service contract to Airbus Defence and Space for support of the A400M airlifter flown by the Royal Air Force and French Air Force, the British and French defense ministries said.
"The first common in-service support [ISS] contract has been awarded for the initial maintenance and support of the A400M Atlas military aircraft," the ministries said in a statement.
The British contract is worth €213 million (US $261.6 million) and runs for two years, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said. The French contract is worth €115 million and runs for 20 months, a French government source said.
France signed its deal Dec. 4, a spokesperson for the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) procurement office said.
"The signature of this joint contract for the support of the A400M Atlas fleet is the achievement of successful British-French discussions over a number of years, and is an important milestone of increasing mutual collaboration at the heart of agreements made under the Lancaster House Treaty for defense and security cooperation," British Defence Minister Philip Dunne said.
French procurement chief Laurent Collet-Billon saw the cross-channel deal as opening the door for service cooperation with other European nations in the A400M program.
"This newly signed joint contract demonstrates added value under the French and British leadership for a common approach for in-service support and paves the way for possibly our A400M partners to move forward that way," he said.
"The intention is to further expand on early collaboration activities where feasible, and value for money in support activities areas," Collet-Billon said.
Dunne said, "The joint support contract is another example of cooperation across a truly multinational program that will see 170 A400M aircraft delivered to seven partner nations over the coming years."
Germany has previously said Berlin will opt for a national supplier rather than a cooperative service of the German A400M fleet.
Britain's contract, signed Sept. 29, runs from Oct. 1, 2014 to Sept. 30, 2016, while the French deal will be effective Feb. 2, 2015 to Sept. 30, 2016, an Airbus spokesman said. For France, the new contract will take over an initial support contract that covered entry into service, the spokesman said.
The Defence Equipment and Support organization of the British Defence Ministry and its French counterpart, DGA, awarded the service deal through the Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'Armement, a European cooperative body, the ministries said.
The A400M contract reflected close defense ties built up between London and Paris, as seen in bilateral work on a future unmanned fighter and missiles, the French procurement chief said.
Collet-Billon recently told staff that, "Cooperation with the UK is clearly a priority in my international activity, as it is relevant to strategic areas for the Ministry of Defense and our industrial base."
"On our mutual dependence, I am speaking of combat aircraft, with the demonstrator for a future combat air system — which was celebrated at the start of November — and missiles," he told his staff in comments made available to Defense News.
Britain and France have agreed to build a helicopter-borne anti-ship missile and to perform a midlife upgrade of the MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missile.
The Lancaster House treaty cleared the way for significant progress on issues that are in the domain of national sovereignty, Collet-Billon said. That can only be done by sharing a common strategic vision and industry and technology for the long term, he said.
Collet-Billon said his ties with Bernard Gray, the British chief of defense materiel, grew "very close" over the last four years and while each side respected its own interests, both shared a strategic vision that helped overcome obstacles, propose good solutions at the political level and achieve far-reaching success through cooperation.
The seven European nations which backed the A400M program are Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, and Turkey, while Malaysia is the sole export client. The eight customers have ordered 174 aircraft. ■
Email: ptran@defensenews.com.
