On April 11, 2025, the Airbus Group, at an official ceremony at its facility at Getafe Airport in Madrid, handed over to the Spanish Air Force the first complete Airbus A330 MRTT tanker aircraft, of the three ordered by Spain, an aircraft with the Spanish tail number TK.24-03 / 452-03 (serial number 1700 / MRTT073).
The first Airbus A330 MRTT tanker aircraft handed over to the Spanish Air Force (Spanish tail number TK.24-03 / 452-03, serial number 1700/ MRTT073). Torrejon (Madrid), 04/11/2025 (c) Santiago Moreno / www.infodefensa.com
On November 12, 2021, the Airbus Group signed a contract with the Spanish Ministry of Defense for the supply of three Airbus A330 MRTT tanker aircraft. The cost of the contract was not disclosed, but earlier the Spanish Ministry of Defense planned to allocate 675 million euros for this program, including the cost of a long-term technical support package.
The aircraft are being converted for the Spanish Air Force into refueling aircraft at the Airbus plant in Getafe from former A330 commercial aircraft purchased in November 2021 from the Spanish airline Iberia. The first of these three aircraft, with the former Spanish civil registration EC-MJA (serial number 1700), was transferred to the Spanish Air Force and immediately sent for conversion to the Getafe plant and now, upon completion of work, handed over to the Spanish Air Force as a tanker.. Two other A330 aircraft with the former Spanish civil registration EC-MIL (serial number 1694) and EC-MJ (serial number 1710) were transferred to the Spanish Air Force at the end of 2021, but joined the 452nd Squadron of the 45th Group of the Spanish Air Force at Torrejon Air Base near Madrid and were used as transport-passenger aircraft until 2023 and 2024, when they were also transferred to Getafe for conversion to the A330 MRTT variant.
Work on the conversion of the second aircraft with serial number 1694 (Spanish military number TC.24-01 / 452-01) was completed in February 2025 and it is currently being tested. Work on the conversion of the third side 1710 (Spanish military number TC.24-02 / 452-02) has just begun and it is scheduled to be commissioned in 2026.
In the Spanish Air Force, the A330 MRTT received the designation TK.24. After the conversion, all three aircraft will also be transferred back to the 452nd Squadron of the 45th Wing (recently reorganized from the 45th Group) in Torrejon. The other 451 squadron of this wing is used for government transportation and has two Airbus A310-300 aircraft and five Dassault Falcon 900B.
Previously, the Spanish Air Force had three tanker aircraft received in 1988-1990, converted from Boeing 707 airliners, but they were decommissioned in 2012-2016. After that, five modified Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport aircraft are involved in air refueling tasks in the Spanish Air Force on an irregular basis.
The Spanish A330 MRTT aircraft will be equipped with only two underwing refueling stations according to the "hose-cone" scheme, and the place for installing the tail refueling rod will only be reserved, and the issue of installing rods will be resolved later. Each aircraft will be equipped with a medical module for solving medical evacuation tasks. The module can accommodate either 24 stretchers or 12 stretchers and six intensive care units (with four oxygen cylinders in each).
Although the conversion of all Airbus A330 aircraft into the MRTT refueling variant is being carried out at the Spanish company Airbus, Spain has only now become their recipient. The total number of A330 MRTT aircraft contracted to date for the benefit of 15 customers is 83 units, and the first aircraft of this type delivered to the Spanish Air Force, as indicated by its serial number MRTT073, became the 73rd completed tanker.
The first converted Airbus A330 MRTT tanker aircraft for the Spanish Air Force (Spanish tail number TK.24-03 / 452-03, serial number 1700 / MRTT073) during tests, 11/28/2024 (c) Airbus
