(MOD) Royal Air Force\'s new tankers take shape

The wings are destined for the first of 14 A330-200 based tanker aircraft ordered last year under an innovative £13 billion contract with the AirTanker consortium. The Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) will replace the RAF's long-serving fleet of VC-10 and Tristar tankers, undertaking a range of transport and air refuelling tasks.

Witnessing the wings leaving Broughton, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support Quentin Davies said:

"Today's wing ceremony marks a significant stage in the life of the Future Strategic Air Tanker and is good news for the RAF and good news for industry and UK jobs.

These state-of-the-art tanker aircraft will provide an important contribution to operations, enabling the RAF to continue its essential air to air refuelling tasks, as well as providing more reliable and economical transport for our personnel, delivering them to the heart of our operations around the world."

While the basic aircraft will be assembled in Toulouse, there will be significant input into manufacture in the UK with the programme creating up to 600 jobs in the UK, as well as directly sustaining up to 3000 and indirectly a further 4500. Rolls-Royce at Derby is assembling the Trent 700 engines with technical support from its Filton plant, Airbus UK at Broughton and GKN Filton are involved in wing production, Cobham at Wimborne and Bournemouth is installing refuelling equipment and carrying out related conversion work, and Thales UK at Crawley, Raynes Park and Wells supplies simulators, defensive aids, avionics and mission planning systems.