On November 12, 2021, the Airbus Group announced that the Spanish Ministry of Defense had signed a contract for the acquisition 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.
Image of the Airbus A330 MRTT tanker aircraft in the Spanish Air Force paint (c) Airbus
The aircraft will be converted for the Spanish Air Force into tankers at the Airbus facility at Madrid's Getafe airfield of their A330 commercial aircraft in service, purchased from the Spanish airline Iberia.
According to the terms of the contract, "in the near future" the Spanish Air Force will receive the first A330 aircraft in a cargo version, which will then be converted into a tanker and put into operation in this form in 2024. The first and third sides, converted directly into refueling trucks, will be commissioned in 2023 and 2025 (the third aircraft will be transferred to the Air Force in 2023, after which it will be sent for re-equipment). The aircraft will join the 45th Group (45 Grupo) of the Spanish Air Force at the Torrejon Air Base near Madrid. Now the 45th group is engaged in VIP transportation, having 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 written off in 2012-2016. Currently, five modified Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport aircraft are involved in air refueling tasks in the Spanish Air Force on an irregular basis.
According to the information of the Spanish Ministry of Defense distributed by Spanish resources, Spanish Airbus 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 blocked, and the issue of installing the rods will be resolved later. Each aircraft will be equipped with a medical module to be able to solve medical evacuation tasks. The module can accommodate either 24 stretchers, or 12 stretchers and six intensive care stations (with four oxygen cylinders in each).
Although the conversion of Airbus A330 aircraft into a refueling version of the MRTT is carried out at the Spanish company Airbus, Spain has only now become a customer of A330 MRTT tankers, eventually becoming their ninth buyer (after seven states and the multinational NATO MMF program ). Together with the Spanish order, the total number of contracted aircraft of this type is 64, of which 51 have been delivered to date.
