India gets keys to C-295 aircraft

NEW DELHI: IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari received the keys of the first C-295 transport aircraft from Airbus in Spain.

The aircraft is scheduled for official induction in India at a ceremony at Hindon Airbase on September 25.

In September 2021, the defence ministry signed a Rs 21,000 crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space, Spain, to procure 56 'C-295MW' transport aircraft, intended to replace the aging Avro transport planes in the Indian Air Force.

According to the contract, 16 aircraft will be delivered in flyaway condition from Spain, followed by the manufacture of 40 aircraft in India by the Tata-Airbus consortium within 10 years of signing the contract.

"Airbus Defence and Space has officially handed over in flyaway condition the first of 56 C295 aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF) to begin replacing its aging Avros-748 fleet," Airbus stated.

The C295, configured for transport and equipped with an indigenous electronic warfare suite, will depart Airbus' production site in Seville, Spain, for India in the next few days, under the guidance of a joint IAF-Airbus crew.

“It was only two years ago that we signed this contract with India, the largest order in the history of the C295,” remarked Jean-Brice Dumont, Airbus’ head of Military Air Systems, during a delivery ceremony in Seville, attended by India’s Ambassador to Spain Dinesh K. Patnaik and Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari.

The initial 16 C295s from the 56-aircraft order will be assembled in Seville, Spain, with the second aircraft set to be delivered in May 2024 and the subsequent 14 to follow at a rate of one per month until August 2025.

The remaining 40 C295s from the IAF order will be manufactured and assembled in partnership with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) at a Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Vadodara, western India.

This marks the first project of its kind where military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company.

Airbus noted that the production of aircraft components has already commenced in the Main Constituent Assembly (MCA) facility in Hyderabad, southern India. These components will be transported to the Vadodara FAL, which is anticipated to be operational by November 2024.

The first 'Make in India' C295 is slated to roll out of the Vadodara FAL in September 2026, with the final aircraft expected to be delivered to the IAF by August 2031.

“This is probably the best ‘Make in India’ program we have implemented ever. Out of these 56 aircraft, a plane has over 14,000 parts. Out of them, 13,600 parts will be Made in India. Earlier, it used to be an assembling job, but now the production has to be done in India," commented Indian Ambassador to Spain, Dinesh K. Patnaik.

“This means the large part of the supply chain, which goes into the making of an aircraft, will move to India. Global supply chain of Airbus is massive supply chain, and all this has to move to India, that in itself is the beauty of the project,” he added. He said that in the past, India purchased many aircraft but never created an aerospace ecosystem in the country. The next 40 aircraft, just the tip of the iceberg, are essential as the Indian Air Force needs to replace a substantial number of aircraft. The C-295 is an ideal choice for replacing most of them, and more orders are being considered for the future.