As part of the contract, the company will equip 15 aircraft with the MELISSA satcom station

France’s Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) and Direction de la Maintenance Aéronautique (DMAé) has awarded Airbus Defence and Space two contracts worth € 1.2 billion overall for the capability enhancement and the in-service support of the French A330 MRTTs (Multi Role Tanker Transport) fleet.

As part of the first contract, called “Standard 2”, the company will equip 15 aircraft with the satcom station ‘Marché d’Elaboration d’Intégration et de soutien des Stations Satcom Aéronautique’s (MELISSA), so that the A330 MRTTs could keep connectivity in all circumstances, including jammed environments and extreme weather conditions.

These new capabilities will convert the French A330 MRTT into a high-bandwidth communication relay node with command and control capabilities. They will be the stepping stone of the A330 MRTT’s integration into the future air combat cloud within the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

The first aircraft equipped with MELISSA is expected to be qualified for the French Air Force in 2028.

As part of the second contract, Airbus Defence and Space and its partners will be responsible, as a prime contractor, for modernisation, maintenance, logistics and technical support to ensure the aircraft’s operational availability of the In-Service Support of the ‘Phénix’ fleet for ten – plus two optional – years. Under the nickname ‘Phénix’, the French Air and Space Force currently operates 12 A330 MRTTs, with more than 18,000 flight hours completed.

“We thank the French Ministry of Armed Forces for its continued trust in the Airbus A330 MRTT, and we are honoured to contribute to one of France’s most strategic capabilities through this programme,” said Jean-Brice Dumont, Head of Military Air Systems at Airbus Defence and Space. “With this new capability of the aircraft, we are preparing the future by transforming the MRTT into an in-flight communications node, as the first building block of the Multi Role Tanker Transport of tomorrow, embedded in the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).”

The support services introduced under these contracts guarantee a level of availability, reactivity and resilience in line with the requirements of the French Air Force and the Strategic Air Forces. This includes support for aircraft deployed outside France.