Airbus to deliver 1st C-295 aircraft to IAF on September 13

NG Missile Vessels · Aug 18, 2023

The Indian Air Force (IAF) will receive the delivery of its first C-295 transport aircraft from Airbus Defence and Space at Seville in Spain on September 13, with the ceremony expected to be attended by IAF chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, officials aware of the matter said on Thursday, asking not to be named.

This aircraft is the first of the 56 such planes ordered by IAF under a $3 billion project to modernise its transport fleet. The European plane maker will deliver the first 16 planes in flyaway condition, while the rest will be manufactured in India at a Tata facility in Gujarat’s Vadodara.

The delivery of the first C-295 will come two years after the defence ministry signed a contract with Airbus for 56 planes to boost self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector. Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Airbus are jointly executing the programme.

IAF’s second C-295 is in final assembly at Airbus’s Seville facility and will be delivered in May 2024, the officials said. The last of the 16 flyaway aircraft will be delivered to IAF by August 2025, while the first “made in India” C-295 will roll out of the Vadodara facility in September 2026 and the remaining 39 by August 2031.

The final assembly of the C-295 in India will involve a raft of key processes and works in predefined sequence before the fully recognisable military aircraft rolls out of the facility, the officials said. Being built on the lines of the Seville facility, the final assembly line in Vadodara will be operational in November 2024.

The assembly will involve the integration of several main components including the nose, fuselage, wings and the tail unit, and a series of key tests, the officials said. While a majority of the work will be done in Hyderabad and production of parts will be done at the TASL facility in Nagpur, the final assembly line will be set up in Gujarat’s Vadodara by mid-next year. Parts like fuselage and others made in Hyderabad will be shipped to Gujarat for the final assembly. The facility at Hyderabad became functional in July-end, and domestic production of the parts is already underway in the run-up to the production of the aircraft in Vadodara.

In October 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Vadodara manufacturing facility. The C-295 will be the first military aircraft to be manufactured in India by a private consortium.

The final assembly in Vadodara will involve the integration of the power plant, propellers, flight controls, beam structure and cargo launching system; work related to electrical harnesses, antennas, fairings, rigging, doors, windows, and air conditioning; impermeability tests; several functional tests; and painting of the aircraft, HT has learnt. A comprehensive final inspection and several flight tests will be carried out before the planes are delivered to IAF.

Six IAF pilots and 20 technicians have thus far been trained at the Seville facility. Another 18 pilots and 60 technicians will be trained at Seville next year. 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.

IAF will be the world’s largest operator of the C-295. The aircraft was ordered as a replacement for the IAF’s fleet of ageing Avro-748 planes that entered service in the early 1960s.

As part of the C-295 India project, the manufacturing of more than 13,000 parts, 4,600 subassemblies and all major component assemblies will be carried out in the country. To be sure, equipment such as engines, landing gear and avionics will be provided by Airbus, and integrated on the aircraft. The tactical airlifter is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127G turboprop engines.

The final assembly line in Vadodara (the first one outside Spain) will have a capacity for 12 aircraft per year.

The C-295 contract covers performance-based logistics support for five years, supply of spares across 10 operating bases for 10 years, ground support and test equipment, and training, the officials said.

The C-295 can carry up to nine tonnes of payload or 71 personnel or 45 paratroopers and has a maximum speed of 480 kmph. It can also operate from short or unprepared airstrips, and has a rear ramp for para dropping troops and cargo.

All 56 aircraft will be fitted with an indigenous electronic warfare suite developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd and Bharat Dynamics Limited. While BEL has supplied the radar warning receiver and the missile approach warning system, BDL has provided the countermeasure dispensing system.