Amid the full-scale war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Airbus anticipated that its specialized Beluga transport aircraft could potentially replace our An-124 "Ruslan" in the SALIS program for NATO.
However, this expectation did not materialize, and the issue lay not only in the differences between the two aircraft's specifications but also in the overall perspective of the client, namely the military forces of the Alliance countries.
Specifically, in 2023, Airbus established a subsidiary named Airbus Beluga Transport (AiBT). It was expected that this entity would operate a fleet of five Beluga ST wide-body aircraft and four Beluga XL aircraft, which were to be redirected to the segment of air transportation previously served by the An-124 "Ruslan" within the SALIS program.
The advantage of this plan was that Airbus had a sufficiently large fleet of "available" wide-body transport aircraft, which had no operational issues and had previously been engaged in fulfilling specific transport tasks, namely transporting aircraft components over long distances.
A clear drawback was that the Beluga aircraft lack a conventional ramp for loading and unloading cargo, as found on military transport planes. However, Airbus addressed this issue by creating a special structure designed to replace the ramp and simplify the process of placing cargo into the Beluga ST's transport compartment.
As further detailed by the French publication Opex360, by early 2025, Airbus had to shut down its subsidiary Airbus Beluga Transport, transferring its 75 employees to other divisions within the corporation.
Paradoxically, the reason for this decision was that the demand for air transport of oversized cargo turned out to be not as significant as Airbus had anticipated.
One might think that the entire reason lies in the differing specifications between the "Belugas" and "Ruslans"; however, as directly indicated in the aforementioned publication, the reality is much more intriguing – potential clients do not fully understand what they truly need.
To illustrate this point, the authors of the portal mention the words of the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force (CEMAAE), General Stéphane Mille, stated back in October 2023, emphasizing that NATO's SALIS air transport program is oriented towards aircraft that are, to put it mildly, not new and will eventually require replacement. However, to create this replacement and establish a new air transport program within NATO, participating countries must reach an agreement among themselves; otherwise, generating the corresponding demand will prove impossible.