During Farnborough International Airshow 2024, the Dutch Ministry of Defense and the Brazilian aerospace corporation Embraer signed a contract for the purchase of 9 C-390 MILLENIUM military transport aircraft.

The agreement concerns a joint purchase that the Netherlands made in cooperation with the Austrian Ministry of Defense: 5 aircraft will be delivered to the Dutch Air Force and the remaining 4 to the Austrian Air Force. In the previous months, José Gustavo, Senior Sales Executive at Embraer Defense & Security, had anticipated that "Embraer is focused on the customer’s needs so it would be open to discuss the sale to a pool of countries as well as to a large organization like NATO, if the Alliance decided for a tactical airlift initiative."

Indeed, the joint acquisition of the aircraft offers clear advantages not only in terms of costs, but also in terms of training, logistics and, more generally, interoperability between the armed forces of different countries.

The wealth of modernization triggered by war at the gates also includes the debate on the role of military airlift in high-intensity conflicts. While doctrinal debates on the viability of large airlift operations are ongoing, it is a fact that there is a capability gap in tactical airlift. To ensure successful tactical airlift missions, fleets need to be expanded but also modernised. As awareness grows about it, Embraer’s C-390 comes timely under the spotlight as an ideal solution for the replacement of legacy medium sized airlifters. 

The C-390 is a twin-engine, jet-powered medium tactical transport aircraft with a payload capacity (26 t) and maximum speed (870 km/h) higher than its main competitor, Lockheed Martin's C-130J HERCULES (nearly 20 t and 670 km/h). To date, the aircraft has been ordered by Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, South Korea, Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary, with further talks ongoing.

Further details and a full report from Brazil will be published in the very first issue Future Warfare Magazine, available in digital or printed version in early October.