{"id":26917,"date":"2026-05-20T15:47:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/26917\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:47:06","slug":"airbus-to-open-new-a330-tanker-facility-in-spain-announces-demo-with-spanish-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/26917\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbus to open new A330 tanker facility in Spain, announces demo with Spanish Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"

BELFAST \u2014 Airbus plans on opening a new A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) conversion center in Seville, Spain<\/a>, before the end of 2027 to meet increased global demand for the aircraft, the company announced today.<\/p>\n

The future site will augment the firm\u2019s existing facility in Getafe, with a goal to boost its annual conversion of civil to military aircraft, from five to seven units, said the European giant in a statement. Other services for the new facility include maintenance, repair and overhaul and upgrade work for existing A330s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe choice of Seville is a strategic decision as it meets all the critical requirements\u201d for aircraft conversions, noted the company statement, adding that the Spanish site \u201ccombines advanced technical knowledge with world-class infrastructure\u201d courtesy of hosting A400M transport and C295 tactical transport final assembly lines. <\/p>\n

The Seville hub will also receive an undisclosed investment from Airbus<\/a> to upgrade \u201cindustrial assets\u201d in its aircraft hangars.<\/p>\n

Announcement of the conversion facility comes after Italy awarded the manufacturer<\/a> on Tuesday a contract for the planned procurement of six A330 tankers, valued at \u20ac1.4 billion ($1.6 billion). The decision by Rome throws out an initial plan from 2022 to acquire Boeing Boeing-made KC-46 Pegasus tankers.<\/p>\n

In a separate move, Airbus today disclosed a crewed-uncrewed teaming<\/a> demonstration that took place in collaboration with the Spanish Navy.<\/p>\n

The company said that as part of a flight trial \u201cearlier this month,\u201d in Rota, Spain, a simulated, high-speed boat chase took place during an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) maritime mission. The operation saw two drones \u2014 a Flexrotor and Alpha 900 \u2014 track a target and broadcast live footage to a Spanish Navy H135 helicopter and Rayo offshore patrol vessel.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, at a company defense summit held in Manching, Germany today, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said that he is leaving it to the governments involved in the Germany, French and Spanish-led sixth generation fighter jet program to \u201creflect and decide what they want to do,\u201d amid a bitter industrial dispute between the firm and French partner Dassault.<\/p>\n

The troubled fighter jet effort<\/a> \u201cis at the core of the difficulties today, there are different ways forward,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Despite Germany and France signaling that they would meet to resolve the dispute in April, a breakthrough did not emerge. Additional time is required to sort the issue out, according to Politico<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BELFAST \u2014 Airbus plans on opening a new A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) conversion center in Seville,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13968,13969,6429,66,556,13970,865,3938,866,17],"class_list":["post-26917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-a330-mrtt","tag-air-force","tag-airbus","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-future-combat-air-system-fcas-scaf","tag-germany","tag-global","tag-italy","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}