The "final details" to be settled for the Airbus A400M (update)

(BRUXELLES2 / In Palma de Mallorca) The 7 partner States of the Airbus A400M received, yesterday evening, a letter signed by EADS largely accepting the "financial deal" concluded and setting a more optimistic tone. We are in " the final decision-making process explains his signatory. But there are still limited details " to settle. Something to delight Carme Chacon, the Spanish Minister of Defence, who somewhat prematurely, at the start of the meeting, announced a " agreement in principle » of the 7 ministers with "a few technical details" to solve (read here).

A small step

The final declaration which is to be signed by the 6 EU ministers present (as well as the Turkish minister) and published in a few minutes underlines "the significant progress achieved during the negotiations with the industrialist. The letter from EADS must (now) be evaluated. We hope this will help to reach an agreement ». Adding (repeating the statement already made in Istanbul) “ The A400M is the most ambitious program, it represents a milestone in the European technological base and a significant improvement for the common defense and security policy”.

Caution from other partners

The French Defense Minister, Hervé Morin (whom we were able to meet this morning with a few journalist colleagues), wanted to be more cautious, however, speaking of one more step. " We are advancing step by step. We are not yet at the final stage. But, at least, that makes it possible to reopen the discussion at the level of the directors of armament which had been blocked for several weeks. » Meanwhile, the spokesman for the French Ministry of Defense, giving a more optimistic tone, confirmed that the next meeting, scheduled for March 8, could be a conclusive meeting. On the German, British and Belgian sides, however, we are more skeptical, believing that a number of issues still remain to be settled.

Points under discussion

• No substantial program reduction. EADS wants partner states to commit not to substantially reduce the program envelope. The UK has already announced that it is reducing its order by 3 aircraft, from 25 to 22. If we stick to this figure, it does not pose a problem. If we continue on this slope, it is damaging to the program, according to EADS clarified a ministerial expert.

• Revision of some specifications. EADS would like to review certain specifications, in particular those allowing terrain monitoring at low altitude (*) .

• The distribution and status of repayable advances. " France is ready to take its share and pay 400 million euros on the 1,5 billion euros, confirmed Hervé Morin. " These are export advances. I really believe in the export capabilities of this aircraft. It is not more expensive than the C130J, it allows more payload, it has a capacity as much tactical as strategic. The other countries have not, for the moment, indicated the amount they were to support. For the Spaniards, the distribution of this advance must be in accordance with the orders placed " otherwise it would be necessary to review the industrial distribution of the program ". A small spade that seemed addressed to German colleagues, who seem to have difficulty checking out, but was mainly intended for cousins English. The real problem seems, in fact, British on the issue. According to the explanations of someone close to the case (non-British), the United Kingdom would like, before committing to an amount, to specify that this repayable advance... will be reimbursed, with interest if necessary. In London, we fear that this advance will remain eternal: we would therefore like to define a date and above all an interest clause for this loan.

(1) The A400M has two specific advantages: the Terrain-Reference Navigation System (TRN – Eads) and le Terrain masking low level flight (TM-LLF – Eads).