Airbus Defence and Space is investing (www.airbus.com) around 60 million euros in a new logistics centre for military-aircraft spare parts at Manching, to the north of Munich.

The 26,300m² Military Air Spares Centre (MASC) is due to be operational in early 2020; it will improve the availability of material for the German Air Force.

The logistics centre will accommodate all spare parts and operating supplies that are necessary for maintaining Germany’s military aircraft.

In total, it will be possible to stockpile up to 100,000 different parts. The ‘state of the art’ storage techniques at the new facility will be ‘process-optimised’ to supply each aircraft programme more efficiently.

Moreover, the new facility will have spare capacity in readiness for future developments — like German Tornado aircraft being replaced by Eurofighters, and a new European Future Combat Air System (FCAS).