The Philippine Air Force (PAF) has announced the delivery of one of its three Airbus Defense and Space C-295 medium-lift transport aircraft acquired from Spain under a new contract. The contract for the three aircraft, which was signed in 2019, is worth PHP5.288 billion. The PAF’s 220th Airlift Wing of the Air Mobility Command will operate these aircraft which will be utilized to transport troops and equipment to various parts of the country. These planes will augment the four C-295 aircraft previously acquired by the PAF in 2015 and 2019.
The CASA C-295 (now Airbus C295) is a medium tactical transport aircraft that was designed by the Spanish company CASA in the 1990s as a development of the CASA/IPTN CN-235. When CASA was incorporated into the European aeronautical group EADS in 2000, the aircraft was designated as the EADS CASA C-295. It made its first flight on 28 November 1997 and entered service with the Spanish Air Force in 2001. The C-295 is in service with the armed forces of 15 countries and it has participated in numerous international operations, including those in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Chad.
Col. Maynard Mariano, PAF spokesperson, said”The aircraft safely landed at the base around 5 p.m. at the Clark Air Base, Pampanga on Monday. It is a part (of the) Modernization Program, which was approved by the current administration. This project will fill in our gap in airlift requirements,” Mariano said in a message to the Philippine News Agency Monday night. Three C-295 aircraft were acquired under the Medium Lift Aircraft Acquisition Project pursuant to the Republic Act (Number) 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act
The C-295 is capable of performing a wide variety of missions effectively: tactical and logistical transport, parachute and cargo drop, medical evacuation, and maritime patrol. The C-295 is manufactured and assembled in the Airbus Defence and Space facilities in San Pablo Airport, located in Seville, Spain. It is a development of the Spanish–Indonesian transport aircraft CASA/IPTN CN-235, but with a stretched fuselage, 50% more payload capability and new Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127G turboprop engines. In 2012, Airbus Military announced several enhancements to the base C-295 design, changes included the adoption of winglets and an ability to carry missile.
