Spanish A330 MRTT Fleet Complete: Ex-Iberia Airliners Now Refuel Spain’s Eurofighters

Airbus Defence and Space delivered the third Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) to the Spanish Ministry of Defence on October 20, 2026, completing the three-aircraft order Madrid placed in 2021. The aircraft joins the 45th Wing of the Spanish Air and Space Force (Ejército del Aire y del Espacio) at Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base, near Madrid, giving the service its full complement of converted tanker-transports.

The handover closes a program that ran roughly a year behind its original schedule. When the Council of Ministers approved the purchase on June 29, 2021, it budgeted €675 million across five annual installments from 2021 to 2025, and the formal order signed on November 12, 2021, called for the third and final aircraft in 2025. The requirement was pressing: Spain retired its entire C-130H fleet, including its KC-130H tankers, in 2020, leaving aerial refuelling to a subset of A400M transports and long-range airlift to two A310s with far lower capacity and range.

Spanish A330 MRTT Conversion Path From Iberia Airliners

All three airframes are former Iberia A330-200 airliners, acquired through Airbus and converted to tanker standard at the company’s MRTT conversion center in Getafe, south of Madrid. The 45th Wing first flew them unconverted under the T.24 designation, using them for strategic transport during Exercise Pacific Skies 2024 and for evacuations of Spanish nationals from Niger and Sudan. Once converted, the aircraft carry the TK.24 designation.

The first converted aircraft entered service on April 11, 2025, after ground and flight trials that included dry and wet hose-and-drogue contacts with receiver aircraft in November 2024. The second followed in late October 2025. The third completed its Getafe conversion earlier this year before entering acceptance testing.

The contract also includes a medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) kit that turns the aircraft into an airborne intensive care platform.

Hose-and-Drogue Configuration and 45th Wing Mission Profile

The Spanish aircraft use a hose-and-drogue refuelling system only, without the Airbus Aerial Refuelling Boom System (ARBS) fitted to several export fleets. Publicly available specifications for the standard MRTT under-wing pod, the Cobham 905E, indicate a transfer rate of about 1,300 kg per minute, with two pods allowing two receivers to refuel simultaneously. That configuration matches Spain’s probe-equipped combat fleet, built around the Eurofighter Typhoon and the EF-18 Hornet, as well as the A400M.

According to Airbus, the aircraft offers more than 18 hours of endurance and a range of 16,000 kilometers. Its 111-tonne basic fuel load, carried in the A330-200 airliner’s existing tanks, means no auxiliary tanks intrude on the cabin or cargo hold, so the jet can carry up to 300 troops or 45 tonnes of payload. The airframes are powered by two General Electric CF6 turbofans.

The global A330 MRTT fleet has logged more than 375,000 flight hours. Airbus reports an order book of 91 aircraft, of which 68 have been delivered to more than 18 countries.

Analysis: Completing the 2021 order matters less for the three aircraft it adds than for the position it gives Madrid in Europe’s tanker market. On August 25, 2026, Spain’s Council of Ministers authorized a seven-year, €5.4 billion framework agreement for the joint Spain-Poland acquisition of at least seven more A330 MRTTs, with Poland’s share financed under the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loan instrument. Four aircraft are earmarked for Poland by 2030 and three for Spain, and Madrid has ceded two of its production slots so Warsaw can meet the SAFE delivery deadline. The arrangement turns Spain from a late-adopting customer into the lead nation of a European tanker buy anchored at Getafe. It also raises a configuration question: Polish F-16 and F-35A fighters use boom receptacles, which Spain’s current drogue-only aircraft cannot serve, and neither government has detailed the final fit.

The definitive contract under the framework agreement had not been publicly signed as of the latest reporting, and SAFE timelines push both governments to finalize it before the end of 2026. Neither Madrid nor Warsaw has officially confirmed whether the new aircraft will be the A330 MRTT+, the A330neo-based variant cited in Spanish and Polish media reports. For the 45th Wing, the near-term task is bringing the third TK.24 to full operational capability.