Spain Keeps A400M Orders, Says Project Must Live

Spain said it was unwilling to cut orders for the Airbus A400M, despite mounting delivery delays, and said European nations were working flat-out to save the EUR20 billion euro (USD$27 billion) project.

Spanish Defense Minister Carme Chacon rejected the possibility, evoked by Germany earlier in the week, that Europe's largest military program could fail. "We are working very hard on a consensus. We have asked for 2 months or more to have a new consensus on a redefinition of the program," she said.

"We are prepared for everything in order to be able to save the program. So that is what we are fighting for."

Airbus has said it will be 3-4 years in delivering the transport plane. It faces huge penalties and wants the contract renegotiated to allow more time.

Participating nations have agreed a three-month moratorium pending talks but Britain and Germany have said they might cancel all or part of their share of the 180 orders.

Asked whether Spain would follow suit, Chacon said, "We maintain everything we have in the program."

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said on Tuesday 7 European nations that ordered the plane were entitled to cancel it and that all of them agreed that abandoning the project was a "realistic possibility".