SEVILLE, SPAIN --- The Ministry of Defence signed the certificate of Customer Acceptance Test for the first C295MW aircraft under the Air Transport project. Signing on behalf of the Ministry of Defence was Yang Mulia 830 Major (U) Arif Shamirul bin Salleh, Royal Brunei Air Force, as Head of Resident Project Office for the project while representing Airbus Defence and Space S.A.U, Spain was Pablo Alvaro Ramos Ruiz, Programme Manager. To mark the milestone, the aircraft key was presented to the Commander of the Royal Brunei Air Force, Yang Mulia Brigadier General (U) Dato Seri Pahlawan Mohd Sharif bin Dato Paduka Haji Ibrahim.
Present to witness the ceremony were Minister at the Prime Minister's Office and the Second Minister of Defence, Yang Berhormat Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Retired) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof, and the Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, Yang Mulia Major General Dato Paduka Seri Haji Muhammad Haszaimi bin Bol Hassan as well as members of the Royal Brunei Air Force acceptance team. The ceremony took place at Airbus Defence and Space San Pablo, Seville, Spain.
The Air Transport project contract was signed between the Ministry of Defence, on behalf of the Government of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam and Airbus Defence and Space S.A.U. on 2 December 2022 for the delivery of four C295MW Air Transport fleet to replace the ageing CN235-110M aircraft of the Royal Brunei Air Force, capable to perform various missions including Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, MEDEVAC (Medical Evacuations), NEO (Non-combatant Evacuation Operations) and SAR (Search and Rescue operations). The aircraft is also configurable to perform various roles such as Troop and Cargo Transport, VIP Transport, Freefall, Airborne Static Jumps and Cargo Drops.