CN-295

The CASA C-295 (now Airbus C295) is a medium tactical transport aircraft that was designed and initially manufactured by the Spanish aerospace company CASA.

Work on what would become the C-295 was started during the 1990s as a derivative of the successful CASA/IPTN CN-235 transport aircraft. On 28 November 1997, the prototype performed its maiden flight; quantity production commenced shortly thereafter. In April 1999, the Spanish Air Force became its launch customer with an order for nine military-configured C-295s; two years later, the type was declared operational with the service. Further orders for the C-295 would promptly follow. Following the incorporation of CASA into the pan-European aeronautical group EADS in 2000, it was redesignated as the EADS CASA C-295.

Both manufacturing and final assembly of the C-295 is normally performed at the Airbus Defence and Space facilities in San Pablo Airport, located in Seville, Spain.[2][3] Additional manufacturing arrangements have been agreed with some customers. Since 2011, Indonesian Aerospace has produced the CN-295 under license at their facilities in Bandung, Indonesia, via an industrial collaboration with Airbus Defence & Space.[4] During 2021, it was agreed that, as a part of a larger purchase, a batch of 40 C-295s would be license-manufactured in India by Tata Advanced Systems Limited.[5]

Beyond its use as a tactical transporter, the C-295 is capable of performing a wide variety of missions effectively. These include parachute and cargo dropping, electronic signals intelligence (ELINT), medical evacuation (MEDEVAC), and maritime patrol. Some of the equipment for adapting the aircraft to performing various roles has been mounted onto pallets, allowing for its rapid installation and removal. On account of the lack of sales achieved by the CN-235 in the commercial aviation segment, although civil certification was obtained as to facilitate its use by government agencies, a commercial version of the C-295 was not pursued for some time by the company. It was not until 2017, over a decade after military-orientated C-295s had entered regular service, that the first contract for a civilian C-295 was finalised.

The C-295 has been acquired by multiple nations including Spain, Egypt, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and others. It has also participated in numerous international operations, including those in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Chad.