On December 5, 2024, the first Airbus A400M military transport aircraft received by the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan (tail number "21 red", serial number 139) arrived at the Almaty airfield, out of two ordered. The plane flew from an Airbus Group facility in Seville (Spain).
The first Airbus A400M military transport aircraft received by the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan (tail number "21 red", serial number 139). Almaty, 05.12.2024 (c) Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan
On September 1, 2021, the Airbus Group announced the conclusion of a contract for the supply of two A400M military transport aircraft to the armed forces of Kazakhstan, and that the delivery of the first of them should be made in 2024. Thus, Kazakhstan became the ninth customer of the A400M aircraft, and the second - outside the original European consortium for the development and purchase of these aircraft (after Malaysia, which received four aircraft in 2015-2017). Taking into account two Kazakh aircraft, and two more aircraft ordered in November 2021 by Indonesia, the total order portfolio for the A400M has reached 178 aircraft, of which 141 have been delivered so far.
The first A400M aircraft (serial number 139) for Kazakhstan was pumped out at the Airbus enterprise in Seville in April 2024 and made its first flight there on June 10, 2024 with the temporary Spanish registration EC-409.
Earlier, Kazakhstan acquired nine C295M light twin-engine military transport aircraft from the Airbus group, eight of which were received by the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan in 2012-2017, and another one in the performance of C295W - the Border Service of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan in 2020.
Simultaneously with the signing of the contract for the supply of two A400M aircraft to Kazakhstan, Airbus also announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kazakh side on cooperation in the field of maintenance and overhaul of A400M and C295 aircraft in Kazakhstan, as well as the signing of an agreement on the first stage in the creation of a local C295 aircraft maintenance center in Kazakhstan.
The first Airbus A400M military transport aircraft received by the Air Defense Forces of Kazakhstan (tail number "21 red", serial number 139). Almaty, 05.12.2024 (c) Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan
