Embraer’s C/KC-390 Millennium multi-role airlifter/tanker fleet passed 10,000 flight hours last month. It achieved the milestone in about 7,800 cycles by the current operational fleet, which consists of six Brazilian air force aircraft and a single example delivered to Portugal earlier in 2023.
Having entered service with Brazil in September 2019, the C-390 gained full operational clearance in March this year. It has achieved a mission completion rate of 99.7 percent to date. In the tanker role, the KC-390 is cleared to refuel Brazil’s Northrop F-5M and AMX A-1M aircraft, and work to clear the Saab Gripen as a receiver continues.
Highlights of the jet's service career have included Covid emergency relief missions in 2020, along with Brazilian citizen support and extraction following the explosion at Beirut’s port in August that year. A KC-390 also flew to Poland in March 2021 to ferry Brazilian citizens who had fled from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The program has found sales success in Europe, where Portugal (five aircraft), Hungary (two), Netherlands (five), Austria (four), and the Czech Republic (two) have placed orders or entered final negotiations for the type. Hungary expects to receive its first aircraft next year. In April Embraer signed a memorandum of understanding with Saab to explore opportunities, including pitching the C-390 to Sweden as a replacement for aging C-130s.
Recent European sales have combined with the good initial operational experience of C-390 operations to bolster the type’s credibility in other regions, including the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Embraer is pitching the type for India’s sizeable Medium Transport Aircraft requirement. Its 26-tonne concentrated/23-tonne distributed load capability and impressive airdrop performance places it within the Indian Air Force’s 18- to 30-tonne requirement.
Embraer has ruled out any immediate stretching of the C-390 to accommodate more voluminous loads, as operational experience has already proved its suitability for its intended missions.
However, the company is pursuing—with L3Harris—a boom-equipped KC-390 Agile tanker concept to primarily meet expected North American requirements. The current wing-mounted hose-drogue system, which is cleared for use between 180 and 300 knots and up to 32,000 feet, can be installed in just four hours, but a boom would require considerably greater alteration. The engineering concept has not crystallized, although Embraer wants to retain as much of the aircraft’s multi-mission capability as possible.