The RAAF is reportedly considering acquiring two more Airbus A330-200s airliners and converting them to KC-30A multi role tanker transports (MRTT).
The RAAF’s initial five KC-30s were new-build aircraft delivered in 2011 and 2012, and these have since been joined in service by two more aircraft – both of which are former Qantas and Jetstar airliners – with these aircraft being converted and delivered to the RAAF in 2018 and 2019.
While no actual airframes of interest have been identified, they are believed to be Qantas A330-203 airliners. Most of these aircraft are currently stored and have become redundant to requirements in recent months due to a drastic reduction in international and domestic travel brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virgin Australia is also reportedly looking to offload some or all of its A330-200s as that business is restructured, although these are older airframes that use Rolls-Royce engines, whereas the Qantas and RAAF’s aircraft are powered by GE engines.
While most of Qantas’s A330-200s are of a similar age and block build to the RAAF’s seven current KC-30As, there are still some configuration differences to those airframes that were built from new as MRTTs. The initial new-build airframe commonality with Qantas’s airliners was intentional as, at the start of the Project AIR 5402 program which resulted in the MRTT, it was envisaged that the then Qantas Defence Services – now part of Northrop Grumman Australia – would not only perform the conversion work on all but one of the MRTTs, but would also support and sustain the aircraft in service.
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