India is set to begin manufacturing of assemblies of C295 military aircraft ahead of the first aerial platform flying into Delhi mid-September to steamroll the country’s indigenous private aerospace manufacturing ecosystem.

 India has to acquire 56 C295s, the new generation tactical airlifters in medium segment, for the Indian Airforce (IAF), as part of ₹21,935 crore worth contract signed between Airbus Defence and Space and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) in September of 2021.

Of that, 16 will come from Airbus final assembly line (FAL) facility at Seville in scheduled batches. “From the first aircraft landing in India in September, and another lined up for next May, one almost every month will follow from 2024 to meet the target set out to accommodate the indigenous industrialisation production capacity build-up of C-295,” said Jorge Tamarit, Airbus’ Defence and Space Head of C-295 India project, at Getafe facility, on the outskirts of Madrid. 

Replenishing fleet

The remaining 40 aircraft has to be produced in India. The acquisition would help the IAF to replenish its fleet of transport carriers which is ageing. The new acquisition of airlifters will operate out of ten bases of the IAF spread across the country. 

The first indigenously made C295 will take to skies in 2026, and, for that the TASL has setup Main Constituent Assembly (MCA) production plant at Hyderabad which would feed assemblies to FAL near Vadodara in Gujarat for the final production of the aircraft, shared Jorge Tamarit said. The FAL near Vadodara will become fully operational from November, next year.

First co-development

This is the first co-development of this magnitude Airbus has ever set-up outside its own facilities in Europe, with the leading European aerospace conglomerate eventually be offloading its entire transfer of technology to the TASL, said Airbus officials. The aircraft’s engine and avionics are among major components that Airbus sources from others.

The MCA at Hyderabad will kick start production of assemblies, beginning with rear-end fuselage, next week, Jorge Tamarit stated. Some small parts are already under production since 2022 though, Airbus officials clarified.

“The C-295 is the unbeatable market leader in its class,” remarked Tamarit.

 The contract has 30 per cent offset obligation over the Make in India component which Airbus believes is “unprecedented and difficult to operationalise in current delivery schedule scheme”.   The aircraft has some configuration to meet the demands of IAF, especially self protection suits (SPS) which has been offered by Indian defence PSUs Bharat Electronics Ltd and Bharat Dynamics Ltd. While BEL is technical authority and integrator of the SPS, including radar warning receiver and missile approach warning system, BDL will supply counter measure display system, pointed by Airbus officials.

 First batch of about 8 IAF pilots, meanwhile, have already completed their training at an Airbus facility in Spain to fly the transport aircraft while maintenance crew is absorbing the know-how at present. 

Replicating facilities

To replicate facilities in India, the IAF officials together with Airbus representatives performed Bhoomi pujan ceremony at the Agra air base to build the C295 crew training center which is expected to be ready by late 2024.

The Airbus-TASL joint venture is pitching for more orders from the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard. The head of C295 India project said Indian Navy has shown interest in at least nine and Coast Guards in six aircraft, respectively, with both configured for the maritime surveillance role.

The correspondent is in Spain at the invitation of Airbus Defence and Space.

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