French aerospace journal Air et Cosmos and British defence media group Jane’s have both reported that the Indonesian government has approved the purchase of five Airbus A400M military airlifter aircraft. Both cite local Indonesian media as the source of the information. According to the French publication, the deal would be worth $2-billion. These reports have so far not been confirmed either by Airbus or Indonesia. Also, it is possible that Indonesia is intending to buy aircraft already ordered by one of the original programme partner countries, but now regarded as surplus to requirements, and not acquire them directly from Airbus. (Although this would be unusual as Indonesia would then be unable to specify any bespoke systems it might desire for its aircraft.)

Air et Cosmos pointed out that, should Indonesia buy the aircraft, it would make the South East Asian country the second export client for the A400M, after near neighbour Malaysia. The publication speculated that Malaysia’s experience with the aircraft may have influenced Jakarta’s decision. Malaysia ordered four A400Ms, three of which have now been delivered.

Furthermore, the journal noted that Indonesia has extensive experience with other Airbus defence products, operating both the CN235 and C295 light/medium transport aircraft. Indeed, the CN235 was originally developed as a joint project between Spain’s CASA (now part of Airbus) and Indonesia’s IPTN (now PTDI or Indonesian Aerospace), and is manufactured in Indonesia as well as in Europe. PTDI also manufactures components for the C295 and Airbus’s giant A380 airliner and has assembled C295s for the Indonesian Air Force.

Major components for the A400M are manufactured in South Africa by State-owned company Denel Aerostructures (DAe) and private sector enterprise Aerosud. Originally, South Africa was a partner country in the programme, with an order for eight of the aircraft. But the country cancelled its order in November 2009.

Aerosud produces six work packages for the aircraft. These involve manufacturing various structures for the aircraft, such as the nose fuselage linings, the cargo hold linings, cockpit linings, cockpit rigid bulkhead, the aircraft galleys and also the wingtips.

DAe has four work packages for the programme. These are for the fuselage top shells (each aircraft has two of these, one each in front and behind of the centre wing box); the wing/fuselage fairings (the A400M wing/fuselage fairing is the largest single aerostructural part ever made in South Africa); the manufacture of the ribs, spars and “swords” – or, in other words, the framework – of the vertical tail plane; and the manufacture of the cargo floor mounts and locks.

So far, 174 A400Ms have been ordered (this figure excludes the reported Indonesian order), of which 34 have been delivered, all of which are in operation. The order book is composed of seven for Belgium, 50 for France, 53 for Germany, one for Luxembourg, 27 for Spain, ten for Turkey, 22 for the United Kingdom and, of course, the four for Malaysia. Germany wants to resell 13 of its aircraft, retaining 40, while Spain also wants to resell 13, retaining 14. (This is why it is possible Indonesia is talking with Germany and/or Spain, not Airbus, and that an Indonesian order will not increase the A400M order book.)

Deliveries have so far been made to the air forces of France, Germany, Malaysia, Turkey and the UK. By the end of November, the French Air Force had received ten A400Ms, the German Air Force had five (a sixth was delivered in December), the Royal Malaysian Air Force three (as mentioned above), the Turkish Air Force three and the UK Royal Air Force had 12.

The programme has suffered delays due to various technical problems, including a fatal crash in 2015 at Seville, caused by problems with the engine control unit software, and subsequent separate and unrelated problems regarding engine propellor gearboxes. Airbus is not responsible for the engine, which is produced by Europrop International, which is a consortium made up of ITP (from Spain), MTU (Germany), Rolls-Royce (UK) and Safran (France). (The propellor gearboxes are made by Avio Aero, an Italian subsidiary of General Electric.)