The shock announcement on April 25 that Boeing was terminating the Master Transaction Agreement (MTA) with Embraer—to establish a joint venture for the Brazilian OEM’s commercial aviation business—also extends to the two companies’ plans to establish Boeing Embraer–Defense as a joint venture to manage all aspects of the C-390 Millennium medium airlifter/tanker. This development was announced last November at the Dubai Airshow, with Boeing to take a 49 percent share.
However, a teaming agreement to jointly market and support the aircraft remains in place for the time being. This had initially been signed as a marketing venture in 2012 and was expanded in 2016 to include Boeing’s global services and support network.
Embraer has logged 33 orders for the C-390, comprising 28 aircraft for the Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB, Brazilian air force) and five for Portugal. The first aircraft for the FAB—which still refers to it as the KC-390—was handed over on September 4 last year in a ceremony attended by President Bolsonaro at Anápolis in Goiás state. There the FAB has established the Primeiro Grupo de Transporte de Tropa (1° GTT, 1st troop transport group) with Ala (wing) 2 to be the first unit to operate the KC-390. The subordinate Esquadrão (squadron) Cascavel is tasked with bringing the KC-390 to operational capability and forging operating procedures. A second aircraft was delivered direct from the Embraer factory at Gavião Peixoto on December 13.
Shortly after, on December 26, a joint FAB/Embraer team completed the test campaign for the KC-390’s airdrop capabilities using the container delivery and low-velocity air drop systems, for gravity-drop and extraction deliveries, respectively. The trials were conducted at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona and verified the performance of the KC-390’s single-operator cargo handling and aerial delivery system, and the continuously-computed drop point function that aids the flight crew in making accurate deliveries. A single platform weighing 19 tonnes (42,000 pounds) was dropped in one of the tests, while in another, two loads with a combined weight of 24 tonnes were sequentially delivered.
Training is currently underway at Anápolis of the first crews for Esquadrão Zeus, the initial front-line squadron. Basic training with local flights was completed in March, and now the crews are training in route airlift operations, a process expected to be completed by June.
Recently the KC-390 has been drafted in to help Brazil’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, despite not yet being fully cleared for operations. On April 10 an aircraft ferried an ambulance and hospital equipment from Ala 11 at Galeão (Rio de Janeiro) to Ala 8 at Manaus. Later the aircraft will be initially cleared for route airlift training flights between Belém, Canoas, Manaus, Natal, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo-Guarulhos, and Santa Maria. During these flights the aircraft will be permitted to carry cargo and is available to support the Covid-19 effort.