On 25 January, Major General Pascal Chiffoleau, Commander of the European Air Transport Command (EATC), Jorge Domecq, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency and Arturo Alfonso-Meiriño, OCCAR-EA Director signed a letter of intent on common in-service support for the A400M capability within the remit of EATC.
The cooperation in the in-service phase of the A400M mainly aims at enhancing synergies, avoiding the duplication of efforts, reducing the administrative burden and by facilitating – where possible – common action. It is thus expected to bring significant added-value, especially by increasing interoperability between the respective Member States.
“Based on the already excellent cooperation with EATC for example on air-to-air refuelling and with OCCAR-EA on the development of a European RPAS capability, I am confident that today’s agreement will be of benefit to all our Member States. Working together means that each organisation will bring in its particular strengths and expertise. This is European defence in practice”, said Jorge Domecq, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency.
Common support for the in-service phase of the A400M aircraft will further underline the capabilities’ multinational configuration. The agreed areas of cooperation are common operation manuals for air and ground operations as well as common training requirements and syllabi, among others. The EDA, EATC and OCCAR-EA will also cooperate on airworthiness and certification aspects, air-to-air refuelling and topics arising through the Single European Sky.
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