Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Wednesday 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.
Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari, receiving the aircraft at the aerospace major’s production facility in the southern Spanish city of Seville, described it as a ‘momentous day’ for the IAF and India as 40 C-295 out of the total fleet will be manufactured in Vadodara.
“It is a momentous day for us, for the Indian Air Force in particular, and a nation as a whole to receive the first aircraft which marks the beginning of a new era, wherein we will be manufacturing 40 of these aircraft in India,” he said.
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.
“It gives a tremendous boost to the capability of moving our forces to the frontline when required,” Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said.