SEVILLE, SPAIN / NEW DELHI, INDIA — India has reached a major goal in improving its defense by receiving the last of 16 Airbus C-295 military transport planes from Spain. The Indian Embassy in Spain verified that the handover took occurred on Saturday, August 2, 2025, at the Airbus Defence and Space assembly site in Seville. This marks the end of the direct supply phase of the ambitious C-295 program.
Dinesh K. Patnaik, the Indian Ambassador to Spain, and high-ranking members of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were there to officially accept the plane. The Indian embassy in Spain used social media to point out that this delivery was delivered two months ahead of schedule, which showed how well the two countries worked together.
The C-295: A New Plane to Replace the Old Avro Fleet
The C-295 is a modern transport plane with a payload of 5 to 10 tons. It was bought to replace the Indian Air Force’s old Avro planes. This tactical transport plane is quite useful and can fly for up to 11 hours. It can carry troops and supplies, do special operations, and respond to disasters, among other things. It can work from semi-prepared strips, and it has a rear ramp door that lets troops and cargo quickly respond and drop from the air.
The full agreement for the IAF to buy 56 C-295MW transport planes was signed between India and Airbus Defence & Space, Spain, in September 2021. This historic deal said that Airbus would send the first 16 planes directly from Spain in “fly-away” condition. India will make the other 40 planes, which is an important part of the “Make in India” program.
Leading the way in private sector manufacturing in India
Now that the 16 direct deliveries from Spain are done, the focus moves to the period of making things in-house. Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) is in charge of making these 40 C-295 planes in India. Last October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez, opened the TATA Aircraft Complex for C-295 manufacturing at the TASL Campus in Vadodara, Gujarat. This was a big boost for this important portion of the program.
This facility is a historic occasion for India’s defense sector because it is the first private sector Final Assembly Line (FAL) for military aircraft in the country. The project includes the full development of an entire ecosystem in India, from making parts to putting them together, testing them, getting them ready for use, and maintaining them throughout their lives.
The “Make in India” part of the C-295 program is likely to have a positive influence on the indigenous defense industrial base. In addition to TASL, major public sector defense companies like Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL) are expected to play a big role in this ambitious effort. Many private Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) around the country are also expected to help out. The first “Made-in-India” C-295 plane is expected to leave the Vadodara factory by September 2026. The other 39 planes are due to be delivered by 2031. This project is expected to create 600 direct jobs that require a lot of talent, over 3,000 indirect jobs, and 3,000 more positions that require medium skill. It would also add more than 42.5 lakh man-hours of labor to India’s growing aerospace and defense sector.