The Airbus Group announced that its military unit Airbus Defense and Space on September 13, 2023 at the enterprise in Seville (Spain) officially handed over to the Indian Air Force the first of the 56 light turboprop military transport aircraft C295MW ordered by them. The ceremony was attended by the Chief of Staff (Commander) Indian Air Force Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhary. The aircraft (serial number 209, Indian military number SA7101) is due to fly to India with a joint crew in the near future.
The first Airbus C295MW military transport aircraft received by the Indian Air Force (serial number 209, Indian military number CA7101) (c) www.team-bhp.com
Recall that in September 2021, the Airbus Group signed a contract for the supply of 56 C295MW aircraft to the Indian Air Force. Under the terms of the Airbus contract with the Indian side, the first 16 C295MW aircraft will be delivered to India by Airbus Defense and Space in a ready state from the assembly line of its enterprise in Seville in Spain, with the completion of deliveries within four years. The first aircraft for India (serial number 209) was pumped out in Seville on March 1, 2023, made its first flight there on May 5 and has now been handed over to the customer. The second aircraft should be delivered to India in May 2024, and the next 14 aircraft will be transferred one per month until August 2025.
The remaining 40 aircraft will be manufactured and assembled in India by Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL), the aerospace and defense division of the private Tata group, as part of a joint venture created by Airbus Defense and Space and TASL in 2014. The production of the main elements of the C295MW airframe is organized at a new plant built by TASL in Hyderabad, where the main TASL capacities are concentrated. The final assembly of the Indian aircraft will be carried out at the new TASL plant in Vadodara, which should be commissioned by November 2024. The first C295MW of Indian assembly is planned to be rolled out there in September 2026, and the completion of the delivery of all 40 assembled aircraft of the Indian Air Force is scheduled for August 2031. C295MW aircraft for the Indian Air Force should be equipped with an on-board defense system of Indian production.
In the Indian Air Force, C295MW aircraft should replace the outdated Avro (Hawker Siddeley) 748 turboprop transport and passenger aircraft assembled by the Indian state aircraft manufacturing association Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under a British license from 1961 to 1983. However, apparently, the procurement and production of C295MW aircraft in India will have a long continuation, and in the future these aircraft will also be replaced in the Indian Air Force and AN-32 aircraft.
The Airbus C295W aircraft was selected by the Indian Air Force in mid-2015 as part of a tender for the Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) program to replace Avro 748 aircraft. The C295W aircraft was the only participant in the final of the MTA tender after the Alenia Aeronautica (Leonardo) C-27J aircraft, which acted as a competing offer, was withdrawn from the competition after The inclusion of the Italian Finmeccanica group (now Leonardo) in the "black list" of the Indian Ministry of Defense in 2014 due to the corruption scandal surrounding the contract for the supply of AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters to India.
However, the process of purchasing the C295MW developed with typical Indian slowness, and only in the spring of 2017 pre-contract negotiations with Airbus were initiated. Subsequently, negotiations were repeatedly stalled and only after two formal approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January and September 2021, it was possible to reach the signing of the contract. The amount of funds for the implementation of this contract by the Security Committee of the Cabinet of Ministers of India was determined at $ 2.5 billion.
It was reported that four more C295W aircraft are planned to be purchased by the Indian Border Security Force, six aircraft by the Indian Coast Guard, and nine by the Indian Navy aviation.
This contract will make India the world's largest operator of C295 family aircraft. India became the 34th country to receive C295 aircraft. In total, to date, taking into account the Indian contract, the total number of C295 aircraft built or ordered is 283 units for 41 customers.
The first Airbus C295MW military transport aircraft received by the Indian Air Force (serial number 209, Indian military number CA7101) (c) Airbus
