Airbus C295 for India completes maiden flight in Spain
An important step towards delivery in the second half of 2023 was taken with the successful completion of the first C295 aircraft for India. On May 5, the tactical aircraft (used by the Indian Air Force) departed from Seville, Spain, at 11:45 a.m. local time, and it touched down three hours later at 2:45 p.m.
The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka grants permission to decriminalise homosexuality
- Jean-Brice Dumont, Head of Military Air Systems at Airbus Defence & Space, expressed his happiness with the accomplishment and acknowledged it as a crucial step for the initial Make in India aerospace initiative.
- Dumont thinks that this programme demonstrates the Indian Air Force’s commitment to improving the IAF’s operational capability, since they are set to become the C295’s largest user globally.
- To replace the ageing AVRO fleet, India acquired 56 C295 aircraft in September 2021.
- While the further 40 planes will be put together and assembled by Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL) in India as part of a cooperative industrial initiative, the initial 16 planes will be built in Seville, Spain, and delivered in a “fly-away” state.
The first concrete and larger private sector Make-in-India defence programme, which considerably enhances the indigenous capabilities of Indian firms towards an independent India, is the development of the C295 Final Assembly Line in Gujarat. The C295 project has now received 280 orders from 39 operators worldwide, making it the only aircraft of its weight and task category.