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Last Friday, the latest addition to the NATO tanker fleet landed at Eindhoven Airport, Netherlands. The A330 MRTT tanker aircraft, registration T-062, is the ninth tanker aircraft for the NATO MMU collaboration.
The NATO Multinational Multirole Tanker Unit (MMU) is a collaboration of six European NATO countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, and the Czech Republic. Recently, Denmark has also announced its intention to join this collaboration.
The nine aircraft are registered in the Netherlands but are owned by NATO. The costs are borne by the participating countries, each of which flies a certain number of hours annually. This ranges from 100 hours for Norway and the Czech Republic to 5500 hours for Germany.
Next year, the tenth and provisionally last aircraft will be added to the fleet. With the possible addition of Denmark to the MMU, it is expected that two more aircraft will be acquired. The aircraft are primarily used for in-flight refueling of other aircraft, but also for the transport of people, cargo, and for medical evacuations. For example, the A330 MRTT can quickly be converted into a flying hospital with six intensive care units and 16 stretchers for the transport of patients.
Cologne
Currently, half of the MMU tanker fleet is stationed at Eindhoven, and the other half at Cologne-Bonn. With the potential expansion to twelve aircraft, the expansion with a third home base is also likely. After all, platform space is not unlimited at either Eindhoven or Cologne-Bonn.