Airbus Defence teams with Tata for Indian Air Force bid

Flightglobal

Airbus C-295

     Airbus Defence and Space has announced it is teaming up with Tata Advanced Systems to bid to replace the Indian air force’s ageing fleet of small tactical transport aircraft with the Airbus C295 twin-turboprop medium airlifter. The main competitor is for the bid is Alenia Aermacchi with its C27J Spartan.

If the C295 were to be chosen for the contract, Tata Advanced Systems would be the Indian production agency for the project, which entails replacing a fleet of 56 severely ageing British Aerospace Avro 748s.

India launches Rs 13,000 crore IAF aircraft project involving private sector

Indian AirForce Avro

     India has kick-started another mega defence project by floating the global tender for the over Rs 13,000-crore acquisition of 56 transport aircraft to replace the ageing Avro fleet of IAF. The project, under which the first 16 aircraft will be bought off-the-shelf and the rest 40 will be manufactured in India, breaks new ground by specifying that the foreign aviation major eventually selected will have to tie-up with an Indian private sector company to produce the planes.