The German parliament has approved a financing plan to modernise the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft, following a wider set of military spending measures. This decision will allow Germany to move forward with crucial upgrades to the aircraft in line with evolving NATO requirements and updated legal regulations.
According to German defence ministry, the approval paves the way for the implementation of the “Block Upgrade 0” (BU0) for the A400M, which aims to address known weaknesses in the aircraft’s design and bring it into compliance with current standards. The project is a multinational effort involving Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, all represented through the Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en Matière d’Armement (OCCAR), a European intergovernmental organisation responsible for the management of cooperative defence projects.
The total cost for the upgrade programme is estimated to be around EUR 380 million, with Germany’s share amounting to nearly EUR 152 million. This expenditure will be covered by the country’s special military budget, the “Sondervermögen Bundeswehr,” as well as the regular defence budge, German defence ministry said in a statement.