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The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday (September 13) received the first of the 56 C295 aircraft, which are set to replace its ageing Avro-748 fleet, at the Airbus production site in Seville, Spain.
The C295 will leave Seville for Delhi in the next few days. It will be piloted by a joint IAF-Airbus crew.
Calling it a momentous day, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said the occasion marks the beginning of a new era where military aircraft would be manufactured in India.
According to Airbus, the C295 is a versatile tactical transport which can perform a variety of missions, such as carrying troops and cargo, maritime patrol, airborne warning, surveillance and reconnaissance, armed close air support, medical evacuation, VIP transport, and airborne firefighting.
The aircraft can carry up to nine tonnes of payload or up to 71 personnel at a maximum cruise speed of 260 kts. It is also equipped for air-to-air refueling of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Powered by two Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines, the aircraft can cruise at altitudes up to 30,000 ft and can quickly take off from and land at unpaved, soft, and sandy/grassy airstrips, the Airbus website states.
With 283 orders from 41 operators, the aircraft have logged a combined 500,000 flight hours.
In September 2021, India formalised the acquisition of 56 Airbus C295 aircraft at a cost of Rs 21,935 crore.
The first 16 C295s will be assembled in Seville, with the second aircraft due to be delivered in May 2024 and the next 14 rolled out at a rate of one per month until August 2025. They will be delivered in fly-away condition.
The remaining 40 will be manufactured and assembled – in partnership with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) – at a Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Gujarat’s Vadodara.
Six IAF pilots, officials said, have already received training and a batch of 20 maintenance crew of the IAF is currently being trained at the Airbus facility in Seville. Three more batches of IAF personnel are scheduled to be trained here next year.
Why is the acquisition significant?
The acquisition of the aircraft is significant for two reasons: First, it will replace the legacy Avro fleet of the IAF, which was acquired in the 1960s, and thus provide a fillip to the IAF’s air transport duties in carrying troops and material to different parts of the country.
The IAF also operates the C-130J Super Hercules planes in the medium category and the giant C-17 Globemaster III for medium and heavier loads, which it had acquired from the United States.
Secondly, the acquisition sets into motion India’s first-ever ‘Make in India’ Aerospace programme in the private sector, under which the aircraft will be manufactured. So far, the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has had a monopoly over the manufacture of military aircraft in India.
This will boost India’s aerospace sector with 15,000 high-skilled jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs in the next 10 years.
Barring major components such as the engine and avionics – which have been sourced from the US-based Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace – there will be a transfer of manufacturing technology to TASL by Airbus on most other components so that 95 per cent of the aircraft could be made in India within the next few years.
The aircraft will be equipped with indigenous radar warning receivers and missile approach warning systems developed by Bharat Electronics Limited, while the countermeasure dispensing system has been provided by Bharat Dynamics Limited.
The airframe of the medium transport aircraft will involve more than 14,000 parts and components, and around 3,500 parts will be industrialised progressively every year by Tata, depending on the capability of the Indian supply chains to reach the stated level of indigenisation.
It is expected that the 32nd aircraft, which is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2029, will be nearly a fully Indian C295.
The European defence major would provide spares support for 10 years and a performance-based logistics contract for five years, ensuring the availability of 85 per cent of aircraft fleet to the force at any given time.
The 40 C295 aircraft to be made in India at the Vadodara factory are scheduled for delivery to the IAF between 2026 and 2031.
Last year, TASL had set up a factory in Hyderabad where the manufacturing of the major airframe components, such as fuselage and tail, started in July this year.
After the major sections of the aircraft are assembled at the Hyderabad facility, they will be transported to the Vadodara facility next year. There they will be fitted with the engine and avionics and other critical components sourced by Airbus from other global firms, and readied for testing and subsequent deliveries.
The factory or the final assembly line in Vadodara will have a capacity of producing 12 aircraft per year.
Earlier this year, Jorge Tamarit, head of the C295 programme in India, had told The Indian Express this is the first time that Airbus is building a complete production system outside Spain, which was unprecedented given the time and various supply chain constraints.
The contract with Airbus will also involve supply of special maintenance tools, ground support equipment, special test equipment, technical publications, training course for pilots, maintenance and technical personnel, and training aids including one full motion simulator. A training facility has been set up in Agra, which will be operational late next year.
