Seville: A production plant that will manufacture major components for India’s C-295 transport planes is going live in Hyderabad this month, in a significant milestone that marks the first time India will produce aircraft of this size. The first of the 56 military transporters ordered by the Air Force will be delivered in September from a production line in Spain but work to make 40 of these aircraft in India kicks off this month.
The main constituent assembly production starts at a Tata facility later this month and the first Indian made C-295 aircraft is expected to roll out from the final assembly line at Vadodara in 2026. Airbus, which has partnered with Tata to produce the aircraft, said that the project will create at least 15,000 highly skilled jobs in India, and an additional 10,000 secondary jobs over the next decade. As part of the ₹21,935 crore contract in 2021, 16 of the transport aircraft will be made in Spain, while 40 will be manufactured in India with transfer of technology. Officials said that work is in progress to create the final assembly line at Vadodara, which is likely to be functional by the middle of next year.
“The first aircraft is ready and delivery is planned for September. This is an unprecedented effort to the Make in India campaign and we are setting up the final assembly line that should start operations next year. Massive effort is currently underway to manufacture thousands of parts of the aircraft in India,” Jean-Brice Dumont, Head of Military Air Systems, Airbus said.
This is the first time Airbus is setting up a production line for military transport aircraft out of Europe, with this level of technology transfer and localisation of parts and components. Indian companies will manufacture close to 14,000 parts that go into the C-295 supplied to the Indian Air Force and likely the global fleet that is in excess of 250 aircraft. “This is unprecedented for Airbus, we have never done a full production line anywhere in the world, this is the most complex transfer of work that the company is undertaking,” Jorge Tamarit, Head of C-295 India at Airbus said.
India has produced a variety of aircraft domestically, in partnership with foreign technology providers. This includes the Su 30MKI fighters, several trainer aircraft and the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft. However, this is the first time that production under such a high level of technology transfer is taking place for a larger aircraft of the 9-10 tonne category.
Almost 96% of the work that Airbus currently does in Spain to manufacture the aircraft will be done at the Vadodara factory after it goes live late next year. Airbus, which has over 2,750 employees in India, is also betting big on India to further expansion and co-development of military systems.
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