Airbus to lead development of a European successor to the C-130 Hercules

Airbus Defence and Space will lead a European consortium of 33 companies and research centers from 12 countries to study the possible development of a future medium-sized tactical cargo aircraft to replace the C-130 Hercules and complement the A400M.

The European aerospace giant will coordinate the FASETT (Future Air System for European Tactical Transportation) project, to which the European Defence Fund (EDF) has granted 30 million euros in funding. The study is scheduled to last 18 months.

FASETT project will analyze the technical and market possibilities for the potential development of a new economical and robust aeronautical cargo platform that can replace previous generation aircraft such as the legendary C-130 Hercules, but also smaller aircraft such as the Airbus C295 or the Leonardo C-27J Spartan.

One of the French CN-235s to be replaced in the medium term, perhaps by a platform derived from the FASETT study.

According to EDF: “The FASSETT feasibility study aims to carry out a cooperative analysis of the transport aircraft replacement needs of EU Member States on the 2030-2040 horizon and to identify European development opportunities to address strategic gaps.”.

Future Mid-Size Tactical Cargo

France, Germany, Sweden and Spain are also participating in the FMTC (Future Medium Tactical Transport Aircraft) project, funded in part by the European Defense Agency (EDA) through a Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) project.

The objective of the FMTC is the same as that of the FASETT, i.e. to define common requirements for a new tactical transport aircraft to complement the A400M from 2035/40.

The search for a European solution for the development of a smaller cargo aircraft than the A400M was prompted by the requirements of the Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace, which must replace several of its C-130H Hercules and all of its 27 Casa/Nurtiano CN-235s (the first examples of which were put into service in 1991).

The challenge will be to develop a smaller-scale derivative of the A400M that can effectively fulfill the missions performed by a C-130 and a C-27, platforms with very different capabilities.

In principle, the idea seems to be to develop an aircraft that can use as many of the A400M’s components as possible, such as its engines, but in a smaller scale. This aircraft could be considered as the future European competitor to the Lockheed Martin C-130J and the Embraer KC-390/C-390 Millennium. The former, with a long operational history in Europe, the latter, already with several customers within NATO (Portugal, Hungary, Netherlands) and with growth prospects in that competitive market (Austria and Czech Rep.).

But unlike the PESCO project, the FASETT proposal offers a much broader participation to European industry and research centers, while taking into account the requirements of 12 member countries.