NATO will establish a strategic airlift fleet of Airbus A400M transport planes, add an A330 MRTT tanker to its fleet and spend about $4.5 billion to acquire up to 10 Saab GlobalEye surveillance planes, choosing the Swedish system over Boeing, to replace its aging AWACS aircraft, Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced Tuesday at the Ankara summit.
Rutte was speaking at a defense 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 defense," 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 defense 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 program.
