By Sabine Siebold
ANKARA, July 7 (Reuters) - NATO will launch a strategic airlift fleet of Airbus A400M transport planes and add one aircraft to its existing fleet of A330 MRTT tanker planes, Secretary General Mark Rutte said on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday.
He was speaking at a defence industry gathering where allies unveiled arms deals worth billions of dollars to show they are heeding U.S. calls to spend more to defend Europe before joining President Donald Trump for the summit
starting in the evening.
"It is about air power, which is essential to strengthen our deterrence and defence," Rutte said.
The MRTT project has nine A330s, which can double as troop or passenger aircraft, based at Eindhoven, Netherlands. By adding another tanker, the military alliance will move closer to plugging gaps left in its defence plans after the United States reduced its contributions.
NATO is seeking to expand the fleet to 12 in the longer run. Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden participate in the programme.
The U.S. has not publicly disclosed details of its cuts, but they range from refuelling aircraft to fighters, drones and ships, according to figures provided by a military source.
Trump has long accused European governments of over-relying on the U.S. to defend them through NATO.
Airbus, which builds both the A400M airlifter and the A330 jet on which the tanker is based, said the shared A400M fleet would involve Belgium, Britain, France, Spain, Turkey, Croatia, and Poland.
The announcement is a boost for the A400M, which was designed to meet a European shortfall in military cargo and troop transport to rugged areas. Exports have been slow to materialise, leaving doubts over its long-term future.
Airbus earlier this year toned down earlier warnings to investors over the long-term future of A400M production.
The new pool would initially be drawn from aircraft already in operation and then others in the industrial pipeline. Finally, a spokesperson said, the operation may eventually lead to new orders though it was premature to speculate on how many or when.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Tim Hepher, editing by Bart Meijer and Andrei Khalip)
