The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) already has two Airbus A330-200s painted in its colors, in shades of gray and the marks written in black.
The jet with the new military registration FAB 2902, which once flew for Avianca, has just received the FAB standard, as the Air Force Commander, Brigadier Baptista Junior, showed on his Twitter account.
The aircraft had been flown to Ireland after months of storage in France. Like the FAB 2901, the second A330 was also repainted in the European country.
As with the first aircraft, the A330-200 will be sent to the United States to be officially delivered to the Air Force, only then flying to Brazil, where it will be incorporated by the Corsair Squadron.
Until now, the so-called KC-X3 program has been limited to acquiring the two commercial aircraft, manufactured in 2014. The jets have not yet undergone any adaptation for military service – the FAB 2901, for example, was delivered with the seats used by the airline Azul, who sold them to the Brazilian government.
The Air Force is training pilots and mechanics with Azul to operate the aircraft, as well as it is in the process of acquiring ground equipment to handle cargo.
Brigadier Baptista, however, assured that a new tender will be launched later this year to contract the conversion of the two KC-30s, as they were designated, to the MRTT (Multi Role Tanker Transport) standard. The work is done by Airbus itself and quite expensive.
