Production of 40 C295 transport aircraft in India will be 'game-changer': Indian envoy to Spain

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Airbus C295 medium tactical transport aircraft in India will be a «game changer» as it would facilitate the creation of a world-class aerospace ecosystem in the country that would help in manufacturing other planes in the long-run, Indian Ambassador to Spain Dinesh K Patnaik said here.
The Indian Air Force received the first C295 aircraft on Wednesday, two years after New Delhi sealed a Rs 21,935-crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space to procure the planes.
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.
«The C295 project will be a game-changer project as it will create a world-class aerospace ecosystem in India,» Patnaik told PTI in an interview.
The first 'Make in India' C295 is set to come out of a production facility in Vadodara in September 2026 and the final aircraft is expected to be delivered to the IAF by August 2031.
It will be the first military aircraft to be produced in India by a private consortium.
Officials said India is looking at procuring more C295 aircraft to replace the Indian Air Force's ageing transport fleet.
After Airbus handed over the first plane to the IAF, Patnaik said the C295 project is not only about procurement of the aircraft but it carries much more significance in terms of the creation of an aerospace eco-system in India.
«We still do not have a private aerospace eco-system in India whereas all major countries have such ecosystems.

The C295 project will create an aerospace ecosystem in India and it will be the beginning of a new