Airbus Defence and Space officially delivered, in flight condition, the first of 56 C295 aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF), which will replace its aging Hindustan HAL 748 fleet.
The C295, in transport configuration and with a suite of electronic warfare systems developed in India, will leave the Airbus production center in Seville (Spain) in the next few days for Delhi (India), piloted by a joint IAF and Airbus crew.
“It was only two years ago that we signed this contract with India, the largest order in the history of the C295,” said Jean-Brice Dumont, Airbus’ Head of Military Air Systems, in a delivery ceremony held in Seville in the presence of IAF Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari.
See also: India’s first C295 completed its maiden flight
The first 16 C295s of the 56 aircraft ordered will be assembled at the San Pablo Sur facility in Seville, Spain; the second aircraft will be delivered in May 2024 and the next 14 will be delivered at a rate of one per month until August 2025.
First C295 ‘Make in India’ in 2026
To boost self-reliance in the defence-manufacturing sector in India, the remaining 40 C295s of the IAF order will be manufactured and assembled locally, – in partnership with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) – at a Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Vadodara in western India.
The production of components of these aircraft has already started in the Main Constituent Assembly (MCA) facility in Hyderabad, southern India. These parts will be shipped to the Vadovara FAL, which is expected to be operational by November 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHtd96NDAIg
The first ” Make in India” C295 will roll out of the Vadodara FAL in September 2026, in what will be a milestone for the Indian aerospace industry, as it will be the first time that a private Indian company will manufacture an aircraft entirely in the country. The final aircraft is expected to be delivered to the IAF in August 2031.
