New Delhi: Giving a mega boost to Make In India project, the Defence Ministry on Friday signed a 20,000 crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space of Spain to procure 56 ‘C-295’ aircrafts which will replace the ageing Avro-748 planes of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The historic agreement marks the advent of a private company in the manufacturing of military aircraft, for the first time.
Under the deal, 16 aircraft will be delivered to India in a flyaway condition within 48 months of signing the contract.
Remaining 40 planes will be manufactured under Make in India initiative and will be steered by a consortium of the Airbus Defence and Space and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) within 10 years of signing the contract.
The C-295 MW aircraft is a transport plane of 5-10 tonne capacity. It will replace Avro-748 planes of the Indian Air Force. This is the first project in which a military aircraft will be built indigenously by a private company.
Ratan Tata welcomes historic deal
Ratan Tata, the Chairman of Tata Trusts, congratulated the Defence Ministry and Airbus for the inking the historic deal and setting in motion the manufacture of multi-role aircraft in India.
Taking to Twitter, Ratan Tata said, “the clearance of joint project between Airbus Defence and Tata Advanced Systems to build the aircraft is a “great step” forward in the opening up of the aviation and avionics projects in India.”
