Australia — Another air-to-air refuelling tanker accepted by RAAF

Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel Jason Clare today announced that the Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force had accept­ed its third KC-30A Mul­ti Role Tanker Trans­port (MRTT) air­craft.

This is the third of five air­craft to be accepted. 

“This is anoth­er impor­tant step for­ward in this project,” Mr Clare said. 

“This air­craft will join the oth­er two cur­rent­ly being oper­at­ed by Num­ber 33 Squadron at RAAF Base Amberley.” 

Mr Clare said the air­craft was the third of four air­craft to be con­vert­ed from a com­mer­cial A330 air­lin­er to a state-of-the-art mil­i­tary tanker by Qan­tas Defence Ser­vices at Bris­bane Airport. 

“This is the most advanced tanker air­craft in the world. It’s an impor­tant piece of equip­ment for our Air Force,” Mr Clare said. 

“It’s a fly­ing petrol sta­tion which will allow our Hor­nets, Super Hor­nets, C‑17s and Wed­getail to be refu­elled in the air. 

“It can car­ry more than 100 tonnes of fuel, and can itself be refu­elled by anoth­er tanker mid-flight. 

“This means these planes can fly fur­ther with­out hav­ing to return to base mak­ing them more effective.” 

Mr Clare said the con­ver­sion was sup­port­ing jobs in Queensland. 

“Con­vert­ing one of these air­craft takes about 10 months and involves a work­force of 170 Qan­tas and 45 Air­bus Mil­i­tary per­son­nel in Bris­bane,” Mr Clare said. 

“In addi­tion, Qan­tas has 46 staff at RAAF Amber­ley pro­vid­ing through-life sup­port for the new tankers.” 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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