Airbus Military Transfers C212 Production to Indonesia

The last C212 to be produced by Airbus Military at Seville was delivered to the Vietnam Marine Police in late December. (Foto Airbus Military)

Production of the Airbus Military C212 light transport is being transferred to Indonesia. The company signed a “strategic collaboration agreement” with PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) in mid-2011. The last aircraft to be assembled in Spain–a C212-400 version–was delivered to the Vietnam Marine Police in late December.

The C212 “provided the basis for the development of CASA into the world-class company that it is today in the form of Airbus Military,” said Domingo Urena-Raso, CEO of Airbus Military. A total of 477 C212s have been produced over a 42-year period for 92 operators. They have been used in a “variety of roles ranging from transport to rain-making, ultra-sophisticated surveillance to search and rescue,” according to the manufacturer. But production at Seville slowed to just four aircraft in the last two years. Urena-Raso said in 2010 that Airbus Military could no longer afford to produce the C212 in Europe.

Today, 290 C212s are flying in 40 countries. The largest population–70–is in Indonesia, where predecessors to PTDI assembled the type under license at Bandung during the 1970s and 1980s. The state-owned manufacturing company has been supplying subassemblies for the CN235 to Airbus Military. It will now build the NC-212, a further upgrade of the aircraft from the C212-400, which was introduced in 1997 with a glass cockpit and more powerful Honeywell TPE331 engines. The NC212 will have new digital avionics and autopilot systems and a new civil interior option for up to 28 passengers.

● Ainonline