IAF to progressively induct C-295 tactical airlifters from next September onwards, with bulk of them to be produced in poll-bound Gujarat | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: In yet another major announcement for poll-bound Gujarat, the Tata-Airbus facility to manufacture C-295 aircraft will come up at Vadodara. The induction of 56 of these new-generation planes in the 2023-2031 timeframe will boost IAF’s tactical airlift capability along the border with China and in the Andaman Nicobar archipelago.
The first 16 C-295s will be delivered in a flyaway condition by Airbus Defence and Space (Spain) between September 2023 to August 2025 under the Rs 21,935 crore deal inked for 56 such medium-transport aircraft last year.
The remaining 40 will be subsequently manufactured at the Tata-Airbus consortium facility at Vadodara, the foundation stone for which will be laid by PM Narendra Modi on October 30, defence secretary Ajay Kumar said on Thursday.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia and Gujarat chief minister Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel, among others, will attend the function. After the recent five-day DefExpo at Gandhinagar, the setting up of the Vadodara facility is the second such big announcement in the defence sector for Gujarat ahead of the impending assembly elections there. The first C-295 squadron will also be raised at Vadodara to replace the old Avro-748 fleet there.
This will be the first time a military aircraft will be manufactured by the private sector in India, breaking the virtual monopoly of defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics for decades. “Also, 96% of the total man-hour work per aircraft that Airbus employs at its manufacturing facility at Spain will be undertaken in India by the Tata consortium,” Kumar said.
After the first 40 twin-turboprop C-295s, the joint Tata-Airbus project will also manufacture more such aircraft for the armed forces and civil operators as well as for exports in the future. “It will create a new overall ecosystem for aircraft-manufacturing in India. Our effort will be to make the facility the MRO hub for C-295 variants in the region,” the defence secretary said.
The C-295, which can carry up to 9-tonne of payload or 71 soldiers or 44 paratroopers, is an extremely versatile airlifter with “short take-off and land capability from semi-prepared surfaces in the hilly terrain that we see in our border areas”, he added.
IAF vice chief Air Marshal Sandeep Singh, in turn, said the “extremely fuel-efficient” C-295s would “certainly surpass” the ageing Avro and AN-32 aircraft in operating from advanced landing grounds (ALGs) in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
“Eventually, the IAF will become the largest operator of C-295 in the world,” he added. The C-295s, all of which will be fitted with indigenous electronic warfare systems, also have rear ramp doors for quick-reaction and para-dropping of troops and cargo.
The Tata-Airbus project had been hanging fire for around a decade before the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the procurement of the 56 C-295 aircraft in September last year to replace the ageing Avros, as was then reported by TOI.