Talks on for replacement of IAF’s Avro aircraft with Airbus C295W

Описание: Talks on for replacement of IAF’s Avro aircraft with Airbus C295W
Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) of the Tata Group and Airbus Defence and Space are inching closer to securing a contract to replace the Indian Air Force’s fleet of 56 Avro aircraft with the C295W military transport aircraft.

Even as negotiations for the $1.8 billion purchase of the C295W are in the final stages, sources indicated that a defence programme between India and Russia to manufacture a new military transport aircraft for the Indian and Russian air forces has effectively been shelved.


Joint venture grounded

Almost seven years after the preliminary nod was given to the Multi-role Transport Aircraft (MTA) programme under a joint venture between Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the project to co-develop a new transport plane has been stalled due to “disagreements over design configurations and issues related to the PD-14M turbofan engine,” sources said.

Though Russia continues to be in talks with India to jointly produce other helicopters, military ships and aircraft, the decision to terminate the Indo-Russian MTA programme has “practically opened the doors to begin the C295W negotiations.”


C295W advantages

The C295W is the latest variant of the C295 military transport aircraft, and is being manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space. The new aircraft is equipped with winglets to transport more payload over a longer distance, and more powerful engines, to deliver improved performance than its predecessor.