New Delhi: The Spanish Ministry of Defense and Airbus Defense and Space on Friday (September 24) signed a contract for the purchase of 56 C-295 medium transport aircraft worth around Rs 20,000.
The new aircraft will replace the outgoing Avro-748 aircraft which are in possession of the Indian Air Force. The Cabinet Committee on Security had approved the purchase of the aircraft two weeks ago.
As part of the deal, Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in ‘fly-away’ condition from its final assembly line in Seville, Spain, the aircraft maker said.
After the delivery of 16 aircraft, Tata Advanced Systems will build and assemble 40 aircraft in India as part of the industrial partnership between the two companies.
Defence Ministry and Airbus Defence and Space, Spain today signed a contract for procurement of 56 C-295 aircraft for the Indian Air Force: Defence Ministry pic.twitter.com/Yb3jKcKy5c
— ANI (@ANI) September 24, 2021
Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts said that the approval of the joint project between Airbus Defense and Tata Advanced Systems for the manufacture of the C-295 is a major step towards opening up aviation and avionics projects in India. “It envisages total manufacturing of the aircraft in India,” he said.
The C-295 is a multi-role aircraft that comes with a number of reconfigurations based on the missions that require it. Tata said the deal will create domestic supply chain capacity at international standards, which has never been done before.
“The Tata Group congratulates Airbus and the Indian Ministry of Defense for this bold move to fully manufacture this state-of-the-art multi-role aircraft in India,” Tata said, adding that the deal was signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The flagship will support ‘Make in India’.