A Royal Air Force Atlas A400M transport aircraft conducted an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) on Exercise Arctic Phoenix in Norway to provide vital training for RAF personnel over the last two weeks.
The Atlas A400M provided a platform for capability testing, a key focus of the exercise, which saw personnel from across the RAF deploy to Bardufoss Air Station in Northern Norway.
According to the Royal Air Force, Medics used the aircraft as part of an aeromedical evacuation simulation to assess how the freezing temperatures could affect crucial lifesaving equipment and key medical procedures, both in the air and on the ground.
“This exercise has been vital to understanding our medical equipment’s capabilities in the extremes of the cold weather environment, acting as a stepping stone to allowing us to operate in similar conditions in the future,” said Flight Lieutenant Barrett, lead of the RAF Aeromedical Evacuation Team at Bardufoss.
The Atlas A400M also facilitated tests by the RAF Expeditionary Logistics Squadron whose staff established a tactical fuel system, known as an Air Landed Aircraft Refuelling System or ALARS, which supports fixed-wing aircraft operating in remote locations.
“The team constructed a temporary fuel system using a fabric tank while utilising snow-filled sandbags to support to the structure before proving its functionality by de-fuelling and then re-fuelling the Atlas A400M. The first time this has been trialled by the RAF in the challenging arctic conditions of the High North. The ability to maintain flying operations from remote and austere locations is vital to the RAF being ready to survive and evade attack and outmanoeuvre an adversary, known as Agile Combat Employment or ACE.”
Well done the lads and lasses 👍
A tangential issue, is there any forecast available re an order for an additional tranche of A400M, to backfill the loss of C-130J? Possible bundling w/ order from others for favorable pricing?