Aero-engine giant Rolls-Royce is to invest £18m in its Bristol plant to repair and maintain engines for the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft.
With the planes now entering service with the RAF, the plant at Patchway has been chosen as the location for a new facility to perform maintenance, repair, and overhaul their TP400 engines. 
It will also train employees while an existing test-bed will be converted to make it capable of running the powerful engine while on the ground.
The announcement comes less than a month after the engineering group revealed plans to axe 2,600 posts across the business over the next 18 months, with several hundred jobs likely to go at Patchway.
While the new facility will initially be used to support engines in service with the RAF, which has 22 A400Ms on order, it will also be available to support service requirements for the aircraft’s other customers. No details on whether jobs at Patchway will be created by the new investment have been released.
The TP400, one of the world’s most-powerful turboprop engines, is produced by the Europrop International engine consortium, in which Rolls-Royce is a senior partner.
Rolls-Royce president customer service – defence, Paul Craig, said: “This is great news for both our customers and the Bristol site. This new capability will enable us to ensure that the RAF enjoys the same high level of engine support for its latest aircraft as it does for the other Rolls-Royce-powered aircraft in its fleet. It also ensures that we can maintain military test capability at Bristol into the future.
“We have worked in close partnership with our employees and their representatives to secure this investment in the Bristol site and we thank them for their support.”
Last month Rolls-Royce said it needed to slash costs by £120m over the next two years to stay competitive, with its core aerospace division likely to bear the brunt of the 2,600 job cuts.
Most of the 3,500 workers at the firm’s sprawling Patchway site work in aerospace – the plant is Rolls-Royce’s main production site for engines used in military aircraft such as the Eurofighter-Typhoon and the Hawk trainer.
This week's announcement follows investment of £75m by Rolls-Royce to redevelop the plant in recent years, transforming it into one of the world’s leading aircraft engine factories.
The plant has played a key role in Bristol’s aviation history since the birth of the industry and has worked on some of the UK’s most innovative engines for aircraft as varied as Concorde, the Bristol Brabazon and the Harrier jump jet.
Among its latest projects is the short take-off, vertical landing version of the engine that will power the next-generation UK and US fighter jet the F-35.
Business secretary Vince Cable praised the investment from Rolls-Royce saying: “The UK’s aerospace industry is the best in Europe, and is second only to the United States across the world. Investments like this from Rolls-Royce will help to keep us there. The projects we are funding through our aerospace industrial strategy will ensure that Britain develops the most efficient and green aircraft of the future.”
Wings for the four-engined A400M are made at Airbus’s neighbouring Filton engineering and production site. The aircraft is assembled at Seville, Spain. 
A total of 174 A400M aircraft have been ordered by eight countries. The RAF version, which will be named Atlas, replaces its outdated Lockheed C-130K Hercules transporters.
The aircraft is operated by two pilots and a weapons systems operator. It has the ability to carry a 25-tonne payload over 2,000 nautical miles and can land on short, unprepared or semi-prepared strips.
It will be capable of flying as low as 150ft or at high-level altitudes up to 40,000ft and will be able to deploy up to 108 paratroopers, equipment or two attach helicopters.
Its TP400 engines are lighter, easy to maintain and use 20% less fuel per mission relative to a similar turbofan engines.
A400M Fact File
- Engines: Four TP400 turboprops
- Thrust: 11,000shp each
- Max speed: 410kts
- Length: 45.1m
- Max altitude: 40,000ft
- Span: 42.4m
- Aircrew: 3
