EARNING OUR WINGS

Ever since it emerged that India had signed a deal in September 2021 with Airbus Defence and Space, SA, Spain, to procure and manufacture 56 C-295 medium-weight transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force, speculation was rife about the location of its plant in India. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone of the manufacturing unit in Vadodara, in poll-bound Gujarat, on October 30, that matter has been put to rest.

- Pradip R. Sagar

Defence secretary Dr Ajay Kumar said that as part of the contract, 16 aircraft will be delivered in flyaway condition and 40 will be manufactured in India through a joint venture between Airbus and the Indian aircraft contractor, Tata Advanced Systems Limited TASL) and Tata Consultancy Services TCS), led by TASL. The total cost of the project is Rs 21,935 crore. Significantly, this is the first time that a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company.

Indeed, the private’ element in the Tata-Airbus joint venture is being considered a watershed moment: many share PM Modi’s hope that this will open the floodgates for aircraft manufacturing in India, where Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL), the state-owned aerospace and defence company headquartered in Bengaluru, has hada complete dominance. Highlighting the increased demand for passenger and cargo aircraft, Modi said in Vadodara that India would need more than 2,000 aircraft in the next 15 years.

According to an Allied Market Research report, the value of the global military transport aircraft is set to touch 45 billion by 2030. The TataAirbus facility is due to complete its IAF commitment by 2031 and is free to export aircraft after that.

Now that the government has opened up aircraft manufacturing to private players, policymakers will possibly not engage HAL for all their needs, thus putting all their eggs in one basket, and distribute the workload amongst private players. Just like Tata has been chosen for transport jets, another firm might be shortlisted to make fighter aircraft. On similar lines, manufacture of helicopters and UAVs unmanned aerial vehicles) could be entrusted to separate companies.