Airbus has announced the sale of four more A330 multi-role tanker transports, with three more aircraft for France, and one additional aircraft for the NATO’s Multinational MRTT Fleet (MMF).

The French order completes its requirement for 12 MRTTs which have replaced the C-135F tanker and will also replace two A340 and two A310 VIP and long-range transports in service, while the extra NATO aircraft will take its total order to eight.

The NATO MMF program covers the air refuelling requirements of six nations – Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic, and the aircraft are based at Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and Cologne in Germany.

The new orders take total MRTT sales to 58 including Australia with seven, the UK with 14, Singapore and South Korea with four each, Saudi Arabia with six, and the UAE with 3. India, Qatar, and Spain have also been reported as close to placing orders for a total of 12 aircraft. The global fleet has flown more than 200,000 hours in service.