The delivery of the first C295 will come two years after the defence ministry signed the contract with Airbus to boost self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector
SEVILLE (SPAIN): Indian Air Force (IAF) crews will carry out acceptance trials of India’s first C295 medium transport aircraft at the Airbus Defence and Space’s Seville facility in southern Spain in early September before taking delivery of the plane and flying it to the country, setting in motion a crucial Make in India project worth ₹21,935-crore project to equip the IAF with 56 such aircraft to modernise its transport fleet, Airbus officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.
Forty of those planes are to be built in India, and work on domestic production is in full swing, the officials said.
The first aircraft completed its maiden flight in May while the second one is in final assembly at Airbus’s Seville facility and will be delivered to IAF in May 2024.
The delivery of the first C295 will come two years after the defence ministry signed the contract with Airbus to boost self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector. Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Airbus are jointly executing the programme.
Six IAF pilots and 20 technicians have been trained at the Seville facility, the final assembly line for the medium transport aircraft, said Jorge Tamarit, head of the C295 India programme.
Another 18 pilots and 60 technicians will be trained at Seville next year, he said.
The first plane will be flown to India by a four-man IAF crew, including the two pilots, and supported by an Airbus pilot and a flight engineer.
The first sixteen C295 aircraft will be delivered to the IAF by Airbus in flyaway condition from Spain, and the remaining 40 will be assembled in India. The indigenous content in the planes is set to gradually increase, peaking with the 32nd aircraft onwards, Tamarit said.
The main constituent assembly for the C295 set up by Tata at Hyderabad will be functional next week, while the final assembly line in Vadodara will be operational in November 2024, said Jorge Madrid, another senior Airbus official associated with the Indian programme. The Hyderabad facility will focus on manufacturing and assembly of C295 parts that will go into the building of the full aircraft at the Vadodara plant. A training centre for C295 crews will be ready in Agra next year, he said.
After the completion of delivery of 56 aircraft to the IAF, Airbus Defence will be allowed to sell the aircraft manufactured in India to civilian operators and export to countries cleared by New Delhi.
The project will provide a boost to India’s aerospace ecosystem and generate 15,000 highly skilled and 10,000 direct jobs, officials added.
The Airbus-Tata combine has identified more than 125 domestic MSME suppliers spread across seven states.