C-295 Aircraft deal in final stages for the IAF : Most Urgent As Transporters
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has several proposals to be put up before the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) when it meets in June after the Lok Sabha elections. Among them is the long-delayed deal for C-295 transport aircraft which are meant to replace the ageing Avro fleet.
“Negotiations for the C-295 deal have been completed. However, the deal needs clearance from the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) as there is a change from earlier parameters,” a senior defence official said.
However, there is no DAC meeting scheduled due to the ongoing elections. “The next DAC meeting will be held in June. So we will push the deal at that time,” the official added.
The IAF has 56 Avro transport aircraft which are in urgent need of replacement. Under the present deal, 16 will be built by a foreign Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and the remaining 40 to be built in the country by an Indian manufacturer under transfer of technology.
The sole bid by Airbus and Tata with the C-295 aircraft was approved by the DAC in May 2015, but the contractual negotiations have been repeatedly delayed. The Request For Proposal (RFP) was issued to global firms in May 2013.
This deal has become even more critical as a separate project to jointly co-develop and produce a Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) of 20 tonnes with Russia to replace the An-32s in service was scrapped after initial design discussions.
The An-32s which are the workhorse of the IAF are currently being upgraded under a $400 mn deal finalised with Antonov state corporation of Ukraine in 2009.
However in view of Pakistan getting its mini AWACS from Sweden, we are in urgent need to accelerate our NETRA project. Our aim must be to equip each of the air commands with a squadron of NETRA AEWCs that means five squadrons and then one squadron fir A & N Tri Service Command ie total of 72 aircrafts.
Thus C295 sekected to replace to replace Avros should be the most suitable platform, better than the current Embraer.
So we need to add 72 to the figure of 56 × C295 already planned. 16 of these will be supplied by the OEM and we need to make 112 in India spread over say 10 to 12 years.
