The Angolan Air Force has taken delivery of the first of three new C295 transports from Airbus, with the aircraft arriving in Luanda last month.
The C295W (T-214) was ferried from the Airbus manufacturing facility in Seville, Spain, over several days, departing Europe on 23 July and arriving in the Angolan capital on 25 July, flight tracking data shows.
It made stops in Gran Canaria, Senegal, and Ghana on its delivery flight. In transport configuration, this first aircraft is to be followed by the remaining two in maritime surveillance configuration.
Airbus in April 2022 announced that Angola had ordered three C295 aircraft, four years after its government first revealed plans to acquire the aircraft.
Two of the aircraft will be specifically equipped for maritime surveillance. “The two C295s configured as Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) will play a key role for Search and Rescue (SAR), control of illegal fishing and borders, support in case of natural disasters and intelligence-gathering missions, among others. They will be equipped with the Airbus-developed Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS) mission system as well state-of-the-art sensors,” Airbus said in a statement at the time.
FITS includes a search radar, electro-optical sensors, magnetic anomaly detector and other avionics. Weapons can include torpedoes, missiles, mines and depth charges.
All three aircraft will be equipped with the latest version of the Collins Aerospace Pro Line Fusion avionics suite.
In March 2018, it emerged that Angola was acquiring the three aircraft for nearly 160 million euros, according to documents seen by the Lusa news agency. Lusa reported that Angolan President Joao Lourenco on 2 March that year authorised commodities trading company Simportex to finalise the contract for the aircraft with Airbus. The contract was to be financed by Banco Bilbao and Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) of Spain and be included in the contract of the Public Investment Programme of the Angolan government.
A growing number of countries in Africa have acquired the C295, including Algeria (6), Egypt (24), Equatorial Guinea (2 on order), Mali (2), Gabon (1), Burkina Faso (1), Ivory Coast (1), Ghana (3), and Senegal (one delivered, one on order). In total, ten countries (including one undisclosed customer) operate or have ordered 44 aircraft in Africa, and these have reached over 100 000 flight hours since 2005.
“Africa is the only region in the world that has acquired C295s every year since 2018 – when one aircraft was ordered by Ivory Coast followed by Burkina Faso one year later. Even in 2020 during COVID-19 times, when the entire market was challenged, Mali acknowledged the great performance of the C295 and decided to acquire an additional aircraft. Senegal, Angola and Gabon came next, between 2021 and 2023,” Airbus said.
The company cited a good example of “resiliency and outstanding performance of the C295 in African territory” during the international peacekeeping mission that the Senegal Air Force performed in Mali in September 2023, with 28 troops rotations in 14 days, performing a total of 200 flight hours – 16 hours per day.
Airbus said it provides different kinds of support to the C295 operators such as material support -including reparation and supply of spare parts, but also technical support with a Field Service Representative, a Navigation Database and Technical Publications updates.
Separately, the heavy maintenance, which takes place in the fourth and eighth year of the aircraft, is fully managed in Seville (Spain), as well as the C295 training to pilots, loadmasters and technicians which is performed at the International Training Centre, with the only exception of Egypt which has its own simulator.
