What is Atlas?

The Atlas A400M is a four-engine Turboprop transport aircraft used by the Royal Air Force to transport troops and equipment to where it is needed anywhere in the world. It supports the Armed Forces across the spectrum of operations, from strategic airlift to tactical combat operations.

The Fleet is based at RAF Brize Norton and utilised by four RAF squadrons but also has a persistent presence in the Falklands where it provides for search and rescue, transport, and maritime patrols. Atlas A400Ms have also been used on military and humanitarian operations around the world such as in the delivery of equipment to Ukraine and capability development trials in the US in the case of the former and the delivery of flood relief to Pakistan, cyclone relief to Mozambique, civilian evacuation from Afghanistan and earthquake relief to Turkey and Syria in the case of the latter.

About Atlas A400M 

• Capable of delivering 25 tonnes of cargo over 2,000 nautical miles at impressive speed.
• Can use civilian, military and short or even unprepared / improvised runways.
• Can accommodate as many as 116 fully-equipped troops, vehicles and helicopters, nine aircraft pallets and 54 passengers, up to a max payload of 37 tonnes.
• Can be configured to provide airborne intensive care treatment for up to four stretcher-bound patients, having achieved its full aeromedical evacuation capability for high dependency and highly infectious patients in 2018. Since then, it played a key role in the UK’s covid-19 response, air-lifting a patient from the Shetlands to Aberdeen hospital.
• Can deliver payloads by parachute, gravity extraction from the rear ramp, or by landing. In 2018, Atlas A400M broke the record for the heaviest load ever delivered by parachute from a UK aircraft. As part of DE&S aircraft qualification trials, A400M dropped 23 tonnes of cargo on Salisbury Plain.  By comparison, the maximum cargo weight deliverable via the Container Delivery System from a C-130J Hercules is approximately 15 tonnes.