Airbus A400M Atlas

Mm.

The A400M?

I guess.

Does that count?

They have been sent for forensic analysis.

The air base is home to Germany's strategic air transport fleet of around 40 Airbus A400M cargo, and it is a key player in national and NATO strategic airlift capabilities.

Now, the police will release further information once all of the components have been retrieved, they've been analyzed, fully examined, and the investigation will obviously determine the origin and activities of the drone or seek to determine whether it's a surveillance equipment, whether it carried explosives, or whether it's just an amateur's commercial drone playing around a, a military airfield.

The German authorities said that they have recorded more than 160 acts of sabotage and over 1,000 suspicious drone sightings over critical military and civilian infrastructures since the beginning of the year.

And one of these days, something is going to go wildly wrong, and we're gonna have a Archduke Ferdinand type moment if we're not careful.

Wun- Wunstorf Air Base, I guess Wunstorf Air Base, is the home of the German Air Force's 62nd Air Transport Wing, which operates Bundeswehr, uh, Airbus, uh, A400M transport fleet.

It's the main base for Germans' A400Ms and serves as a major hub for military air transport, including logistics, troop transport, medevac, and aerial refueling missions.

The drone came down in an open, uninhabited area, and authorities currently say that there are no indications of danger to the public.

Well, n-not other than whatever hybrid warfare kinda things have already been going on.

Alongside its quick-reaction alert duties, the detachment has conducted a demanding program of training sorties and multinational activities, including flexible deterrent option missions, integrating multi-domain capabilities and agile combat employment principles.

A Spanish A400M has also provided air-to-air refueling support, increasing the endurance, range and tactical flexibility of the fighters.

Together, operational alerts and training missions have taken the detachment beyond 200 flying hours since the deployment began.

Spanish Lieutenant Colonel Alberto B. Calvo López, commander of the EAP-72 Spanish detachment, said, Effective deterrence requires real presence, responsiveness and interoperability.

And we supported them.

However, when we landed a contract for the bigger engines, so the A400M military, so it was an upscale from helicopter engines to an aircraft engines.

So if you see the aircraft, they are so big, they have four engines even, and the size of one engine is as big as a Pajero.

So no-brainer, the turnover is bigger, right? For 16 engines, the contract is big.

Equally, this selling of aviation equipment comprises of selling of engines.

Mm-hmm.

Now, earlier I told you that the expensive engine or expensive contract is due to the A400M, which is the fixed-wing transporter.

It's quite a huge machine.

So I know what you mean.

But we, of course, got the A400M, which is replacing the Hercules here.

And again, I'm quite lucky where I live that we occasionally get the low level passes of those.

And I think it's starting to prove itself.

You can see it right before you there, can't you? Not exactly subject to supposition, therefore, is it? The only thing we can't see is what was stuffed inside it, of course, so thankfully we have independent media helpfully providing some context on that.

What it could be carrying in the form of journalist Matt Kennard, who has picked up that it was an Airbus A400M Atlas, which according to him could carry a payload of 81,600 pounds or 116 fully equipped soldiers.

So what was in it then? Why did it go? Why was an aircraft of that size required to carry whatever was inside of it? Of course, we don't know, do we? Yet aircraft taking off from RAF Akrotiri and going to Israel is hardly anything new, is it? It's just the first time it's been seen happening under Andy Burnham.

So again, is this another case of no change from Starmer? The plane flew to Israel, circled there for about an hour, scuttled back to Akrotiri.

I don't know what Korea is doing.

We can go with the A400M.

Has been very expensive.

Hasn't been terribly productive, but I suspect that expense is still there, but productivity is improving and could be on a useful platform.

But likelihood is if we can't afford C27Js, we can't afford A400Ms.

And our experience in buying European air transport aircraft apparently hasn't gone well given the hole into which we tipped all the tie pans.

So I'm kind of thinking that's probably not an ideal solution.