Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the groundwork for the Tata-Airbus consortium’s C295 aircraft production plant in Vadodara, Gujarat, which would produce transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF). It is the first initiative of its sort in which a commercial company will produce a military aircraft in India.
The C295 aircraft will also be manufactured outside of Europe for the first time. The manufacturing site will cater to the export of transport aircraft as well as new IAF orders.
The C295 was initially manufactured by Construccionaes Aeronauticcas SA, a Spanish aircraft manufacturer that is now part of Airbus, and the aircraft is manufactured at Airbus’s plant in Spain. In September 2021, India agreed to pay Rs 21,935 crore to Airbus Defence and Space for 56 C295 planes to replace the IAF’s ageing Avro-748 planes, which started service in the early 1960s.
Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in ‘fly-away’ condition from its final assembly line in Seville, Spain, within four years, while the remaining 40 aircraft will be constructed by Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) in India as part of the two firms’ industrial cooperation.
The IAF will get the 16 fly-away aircraft between September 2023 and August 2025. The first Made-in-India aircraft will be delivered in September 2026, with the remaining 39 required to be completed by August 2031.
According to Airbus, the C295 operates in South America’s Brazilian jungles and Columbian mountains, the Middle East’s deserts of Algeria and Jordan, and Europe’s frigid climates of Poland and Finland. The plane has also taken part in combat operations in Chad, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
As a tactical transport aircraft, the C295 can transport troops and logistical supplies from the country’s main airfields to forward operating airfields. It can also operate on small unprepared airstrips because to its Short Take-Off and Landing capability (STOL). According to Airbus, it can fly low-level operations for tactical missions from small airstrips as little as 2,200 feet length and at a low speed of 110 knots.
Additionally, the aircraft can be utilized for casualty or medical evacuation, special missions, disaster response, and marine patrol operations.
