First Of 16 Ordered By Spanish Ministry Of Defense

Airbus announced it has completed assembly of the first of 16 C295 Maritime Surveillance Aircraft for the Spanish Air and Space Force as the special mission aircraft rolled off the line at the Airbus plant in Seville, Spain.

The aircraft will now enter development and certification testing, and its first flight is slated to be conducted before the end of 2025. The order was placed with Airbus in December 2023 and is valued at €1.7 billion ($1.9 billion).

Six of the C295 will be the Maritime Patrol Aircraft, or MPA variant, equipped for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare missions to replace the Spanish P-3 Orion fleet that retired near the end of 2022. They will have a magnetic anomaly detector, sonobuoys, multi-mode radar, and satellite communications capability.

They will also be armed with torpedoes and are anticipated to serve as a command-and-control platform to coordinate with naval and airborne assets during joint missions.

The other 10 aircraft will replace Spain’s aging CN-235 Vigma fleet that entered service in 1988. They will be outfitted with gear for anti-smuggling, anti-illegal migration, and anti-drug trafficking operations as well as search and rescue missions.

Deliveries of the advanced C295 special mission aircraft are expected to begin in 2026, slightly ahead of the original projected schedule.

FMI:  www.airbus.com/