Airbus confirmed the development of a second iteration of the A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft, which Jean-Brice Dumont, head of airpower, dubbed ‘MRTT+’ during a briefing at the Paris Air Show on 17 June 2025.
This new air-to-air refuelling platform is the NEO (new engine option) version of the MRTT, Dumont delineated, meaning it has a greater capability than its predecessor.
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The programme is “in full motion”, Dumont asserted, with an aim to deliver by the end of 2028.
Currently, as many as 15 nations operate the original A330 MRTT. This includes Australia, Canada, France, Nato under the Multinational MRTT Fleet (Germany, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Norway, Belgium, Czech Republic), South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Spain, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
MRTT has been around for more than a decade and is fully interoperable with a wide range of receivers including variants:
- Boom : E3, F-16, F-15, C-17, F-35A, E-7A, A-10C, F-22, P-8A, B1-B, B-2A, B-52H.
- Hose and drogue: F-18, Tornado, Rafale, M2000, F-35B, Eurofighter Typhoon, AV-8B, JAS 39.
Based on “the signals we are getting from customers, we are studying an increase in the production rate as we turn to the MRTT+” Dumont emphasised.
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By GlobalData
Militaries are seeking to operate using new methods. In particular, air forces must be faster and widespread under what is known as the Agile Combat Employment concept for dispersed operations. Tankers play a key role in sustaining these long logistics chains.
One growing air doctrine that has garned billions in investment is the system-of-systems approach, from the Global Combat Air Programme to Next Generation Air Dominance, and this has placed greater indirect value on tankers. In this concept, a crewed fighter connects with all manner of autonomous collaborative platforms, particularly uncrewed aerial systems, otherwise known as drones.
“The concept of having drones flying close to the aircraft is a very nice one,” Dumont acknowledged, “but if the drones can’t refuel, they go back home way before the tanker.
“So in that nice concept where everybody flies together the drone has to be refuelled as well, and that’s manned-unmanned teaming, the more local application that we are definitely after.”
