Seville (Southern Spain): TATA Group’s Hyderabad-based facility in collaboration with European aviation major Airbus has started manufacturing the C-295 transport aircraft that will replace the aging Avro fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
In addition, the initial batch of six pilots have completed their training in Spain and the first batch of IAF aircraft engineers are now being trained for aircraft maintenance, who will be deployed at 10 operating bases.
The IAF has also entered into a five-year Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) agreement with Airbus, whereby the company is contractually bound to ensure 85 per cent availability for the fleet at any point of time. This means that at any point of time, 85 per cent of the fleet should be ready for operations and should not be servicing or waiting for spare parts.
While the IAF has ordered 56 C-295 aircraft – each capable of carrying up to 9 tonnes of cargo – Airbus officials confirmed that they, along with TATA, are in talks with the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard to procure up to 15. are conversing. Additional aircraft of which nine will be deployed for maritime surveillance.
However, sources in the defense and security establishment told ThePrint that the BSF, which also operates the Avros, is looking at procuring the C-295 aircraft, besides a security agency looking to use the aircraft for technical surveillance.
Apart from this, TATA group can also sell this aircraft in other countries.
“We have 56 aircraft for production and 40 of them are in India. The first logical answer is to let us do what we’ve been paid to do,” said Jean-Brice Dumont, head of Military Air Systems. Airbus. He was responding to a question about the future development of the C-295 programme.
“Certainly yes, we not only hope but we also believe. It is a great aircraft for the country. “Fifty-six is a lot and not a lot at the same time,” he said. Dumont said there could be “regional opportunities for aircraft serviced from India”.
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First delivery by September, indigenous aircraft by 2026
Talking about the ongoing work on the C-295 aircraft, Airbus officials said first plane One will be handed over to the IAF this September and the second is already on the final assembly line and will be delivered in May next year.
According to the Rs 21,000 crore deal with Airbus Defense and Space, Spain Put signature on In September 2021, the first 16 aircraft will be delivered in ‘fly-away’ condition from their final assembly line here in Seville, Spain. The deliveries are to be completed by September 2025.
The remaining 40 aircraft will be manufactured and assembled by Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) in India as part of an industrial partnership between the two companies.
The first India-made aircraft will be delivered in 2026 and the remaining 39 aircraft will be delivered by 2031.
“Work on the Main Constituent Assembly (MCA) line at the TASL facility in Hyderabad began this month,” said George Tamarit, Airbus’ C-295 India program head. MCA is the initial assembly of the various parts. The rear torso will be worked on first.
While most of the work will be done in Hyderabad and parts will be produced at the TASL facility in Nagpur, the final assembly line will be set up in Gujarat’s Vadodara by the middle of next year. The fuselage and other parts made in Hyderabad will be sent to Gujarat for final assembly.
Tamarit said that with 56 aircraft, the IAF would be the largest operator of the fleet in the world, although there are 34 other countries that use the aircraft.
Incidentally, this would be the first time in history that an Indian private company would manufacture an aircraft. “We are building a complete production system in India and this is a first for Airbus,” Tamarit told a select group of journalists here. He said Airbus has final assembly lines or pre-assembly lines in some countries but does not have a complete production system.
Talking about the collaboration with TATA, Tamrit said that it involves technology transfer of about 90 per cent. In terms of man hours, the aircraft will be made pan-India from the 30th aircraft onwards, he said. This means that no work will be done by Airbus on the rest of the orders outside the country.
Airbus officials said 14,000 aircraft parts are being indigenized by the Tata group at a rate of about 4,000 per year. The only parts that won’t be indigenous are the non-Airbus ones – like landing gear, engines, avionics.
In addition, Airbus is also setting up a training center for the Indian Air Force in Agra which will have simulators and will be completed by the end of 2024. In addition, Uttar Pradesh will host a warehouse for C-295 parts. India is also in talks with Airbus to set up a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) hub for the aircraft, which is operated by several countries in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Indonesia.
The reporter is on a visit to the C-295 facility in Spain at the invitation of Airbus.
(Editing by Amritansh Arora)
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