India’s first C-295 aircraft will formally be inducted into the Indian Air Force at a ceremony in Hindon near Delhi on Monday. The medium tactical transport aircraft was handed over to the IAF in the southern Spanish city of Seville earlier this month.
Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari had on September 13 received the first of the 56 C295 transport aircraft two years after India sealed a Rs 21,935-crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space to procure the jets to replace its ageing Avro–748 fleet.
All About The Aircraft
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is procuring the C295 aircraft to replace its fleet of ageing Avro-748 planes that entered the service over six decades back.
The C295 is known to be a superior aircraft used for tactical transport of up to 71 troops or 50 paratroopers, and for logistic operations to locations that are not accessible to current heavier aircraft.
The aircraft can airdrop paratroops and loads, and also be used for casualty or medical evacuation.
The aircraft is capable of performing special missions as well as disaster response and maritime patrol duties. Its flexibility is the capability of being equipped for air-to-air refueling of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
The aircraft is fitted with a retractable landing gear and features an unobstructed 12.69-meter-long pressurized cabin. The C-295 cruises at altitudes up to 30,000 feet.
It reportedly has a remarkable short take-off & landing (STOL) performance from unpaved, soft, and sandy/grass airstrips.
According to Airbus, the C-295 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127G turboprop engines that provide excellent manoeuvrability, outstanding hot-and-high performance, with fuel consumption for a very long endurance of up to 13 hours aloft.
The Deal With Airbus
Under the deal, Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in ‘fly-away’ condition from its final assembly line in Seville by 2025 and the subsequent 40 aircraft will be manufactured and assembled by Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) in India as part of an industrial partnership between the two companies.
The production of components of these aircraft has already started in the Main Constituent Assembly (MCA) facility in Hyderabad. These parts will be shipped to the Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Vadodara which is expected to be operational by November 2024.
In October last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the manufacturing facility for 295 planes in Vadodara. It will be the first military aircraft to be manufactured in India by a private consortium.
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