The leaders of India and Spain launch India’s first private military aircraft plant

VADODARA, India (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez inaugurated India’s first private military aircraft plant Monday, boosting New Delhi’s ambitions of growing local manufacturing in its defense and aerospace industries.

Sanchez was welcomed to the country with a roadshow in Gujarat state’s Vadodara city where hundreds of people cheered and waved banners.

The two leaders then launched the Tata Aircraft Complex, the manufacturing hub which will produce the Airbus C-295 transport military aircraft in collaboration with Airbus Spain and to be deployed by the Indian air force.

Sanchez said the project was a triumph of Modi’s vision “to turn India into an industrial powerhouse and a magnet for investment and business-to-business collaboration.”

“This partnership between Airbus and Tata will contribute to the progress of the Indian aerospace industry and will open new doors for the arrival of other European companies,” he added.

The chairman of Tata conglomerate, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, hailed it as a historic day for the country’s defense sector and credited the late Ratan Tata, the industrialist and former chairman who died earlier this month, for conceiving the idea more than a decade ago.

Under a $2.5 billion deal signed in 2021, Airbus will deliver the first 16 of the aircraft from its final assembly line in Seville, Spain — six of them have been delivered to the Indian air force so far. Tata Advanced Systems Ltd will produce 40 of the aircraft in the Vadodara plant, which is expected to roll out the first C-295 aircraft made in India in 2026. The aircraft can transport up to 71 troops or 50 paratroopers and will be able to access remote locations. It can also be used