In a major boost for Make in India in the defence sector, the Indian Coast Guard and the Navy will acquire 15 C-295 transport aircraft that are being manufactured in India in a joint venture between Tata Advanced Systems and Airbus.
The proposals for the acquisition of these 15 aircraft are at an advanced stage in the defence ministry, in which nine planes would be procured by the Navy while six would be taken by the Indian Coast Guard.
The transport aircraft would be equipped with the required radars and sensors and turned into a maritime patrol plane by the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS), defence officials said.
Speaking about his force’s projects, Indian Coast Guard Chief Director General Rakesh Pal told ANI, “There are plans for acquiring long-range maritime surveillance aircraft, which the Air Force has taken, and the contracts will be signed with TASL (Tata Advanced Systems Limited), wherein we are about to get six C295 transport aircraft.”
He said, “The Ministry of Defence is giving us adequate funds to ensure that our acquisition processes are all fast-tracked.”
The Coast Guard chief informed that shortly his force was also set to sign contracts for nine more advanced-light helicopters, the ALH Dhruv manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The Indian Air Force recently inducted the first C-295 transport aircraft manufactured in Spain.
While the first 16 will come from Spain in fly-away condition, the remaining 40 will be produced in India at a Tata facility in Vadodara, Gujarat.
The order from the Navy and Coast Guard, if approved by the government, will take the Tata Airbus order book to 71 from the existing 56.
The C-295 is being used by some of the operators of the plane in maritime patrol roles.
