Airbus-Tata transport plane C295 to be made in Gujarat's Vadodra

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, October 27

A consortium of European major Airbus and Indian conglomerate Tata will make the C295 military transport aircraft in Gujarat’s Vadodara.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation of the facility on October 30. Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said this facility will be used for further orders of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and also for export. “The indigenous content will be very high as 96 per cent of the work that Airbus does at its facility in Spain will be done in India”, the Defence Secretary said on Thursday. This would not include the engine of the plane.

Sixteen of the aircraft will be delivered from 2023 onwards in a flyaway condition from the Airbus unit in Spain. By August 2025, all the 16 planes will be delivered. The remaining 40 will be manufactured in India by the new facility at Vadodara commencing from 2026 to 2031.

The electronic warfare suite is being designed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and it will be fitted into all the 56 planes.

The plane can take 40 paratroopers or 71 passengers. It can land on short runways and even unprepared runways, IAF Vice-Chief Air Marshal Sandeep Singh said.

In September last year, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved the procurement of 56 military transport aircraft from European manufacturer Airbus at a cost of nearly Rs 21,900 crore.

The C-295MW plane is a transport aircraft of 5-10 tonne capacity with contemporary technology that will replace the ageing Avro aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The aircraft has a rear ramp door for quick reaction and para-dropping of troops and cargo.

This is the first project of its kind in which a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company.

A large number of parts, sub-assemblies and major component assemblies of aero structure are scheduled to be manufactured in India. The programme will act as a catalyst in employment generation in the aerospace ecosystem of the country.