On Wednesday, September 13, India will receive its first Airbus C-295 military aircraft from Spain. The IAF will receive its first such aircraft today as part of a deal inked with Airbus for 56 such aircraft. The company will send 16 such aircraft from its plant in Spain, while the remaining 40 will be manufactured in Vadodara in collaboration with Tata Advanced Systems Limited.
According to the reports, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) V R Chaudhari is in Seville, Spain to take delivery of the aircraft. A C-295 is a transport plane with short takeoff and landing capabilities. The plane is expected to land at Uttar Pradesh’s Hindon airbase on September 25.
The aircraft is expected to be inducted formally into the service at a ceremony in Hindan around September last week.
“The IAF chief would receive the first aircraft from Airbus at their facility in Seville, Spain on Wednesday. The aircraft would be flying to India from there after the ceremony,” defence officials told the media. The Indian Air Force chief was personally involved in the contract at important stages as the Deputy Chief of Air Staff where he was leading the contract negotiations.
In September 2021, India signed an agreement with Airbus Defence and Space to purchase 56 C-295 aircraft to replace the IAF’s antiquated Avro-748 jets. And in just two years, the first aircraft is being delivered by the European aerospace giant. This is a major improvement from earlier governments where defence deals took decades to complete, and some were even scraped after years and decades, causing major difficulties for the armed forces.
In accordance with the contract, Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in a ‘fly-away’ situation from its final assembly line in Seville, Spain, within a period of four years. The following 40 aircraft will be produced and put together by Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) in India as part of an industrial partnership between the two corporations. Production of the aircraft at the Vadodara has already started.
The Main Constituent Assembly (MCA) in Hyderabad will produce several major sub-assemblies for the aircraft, which will be shipped to the Final Assembly Line (FAL) at Vadodara, where the aircraft will take its final shape. Production of sub-assemblies the Hyderabad plant has already started, and final assembly in Vadodara is expected to start by next year.
The aircraft can carry up to nine tonnes of payload or 71 personnel at a maximum cruise speed of 260 kts. Its versatility comes from its ability to be configured for air-to-air refuelling of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. The aircraft has a rear ramp door for quick reaction and para dropping of troops and cargo.
The aircraft has retractable landing gear and an unobstructed 12.69-meter-long pressurized cabin. The C-295 can fly at altitudes of up to 30,000 feet. It excels in short take-off and landing (STOL) from unpaved, soft, and sandy/grass airstrips.
According to Airbus, the C-295 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127G turbine engines, which give great flexibility, remarkable hot-and-high efficiency, and fuel consumption for a very long duration of up to 13 hours aloft.
The agreement between Airbus and TATA will see roughly 90 percent of the technology transferred. This is the first initiative of its sort in which a private business will produce a military aircraft in India. The initiative will benefit India’s aerospace ecosystem by involving various MSMEs from throughout the country in the production of airplane parts.
Once India begins production, it will be the newest member of a small group of countries capable of producing the C-295. Other members of the group include the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Brazil, China, and Japan.
