A NEW CARGO aircraft for the Irish Air Corps will arrive at its base in Baldonnel this afternoon.

Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris announced the delivery of the new Airbus C-295 aircraft this morning. 

It is the cargo variant of the maritime patrol aircraft and will be available to carry military freight, humanitarian aid and troops across the globe. 

The Tánaiste said: “The State’s investment of approximately €300 million in three C-295 aircraft and associated costs represents the largest equipment acquisition project ever undertaken for the Defence Forces.

“This significant investment is an indication of the Government’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that all branches of the Defence Forces continue to retain a range of flexible conventional military capabilities to meet the roles assigned.” 

The Tánaiste added that the new Government jet, or in military speak the new strategic reach aircraft, the Dassault Falcon 6X is also due to arrive later this year. 

“These aircraft are destined to play a very important role here in Casement Aerodrome over the next quarter of a century, supporting the men and women of the Air Corps and the wider Defence Forces in performing the roles assigned to them by government,” he said. 

The purchase of a dedicated cargo variant aircraft for the Air Corps follows a lengthy campaign by defence sector and military advocates.

It follows a number of operations by the Army Ranger Wing to evacuate of citizens from Afghanistan and Sudan in which the troops had to avail of other State’s airlift capability. It was also a recommendation of the Commission on the Defence Forces to purchase an aircraft to enable Ireland to break free from depending on other countries.  

Members of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW), the Irish army’s special forces unit, were dispatched to rescue Irish citizens from the Afghan capital.

As the Irish Air Corps did not have a long-range aircraft suitable for the mission, French and Finnish aircraft were used for their flights to and from the war-torn country.

A similar operation was held for Irish citizens in the African state of Sudan as war broke out. That was facilitated with help by British and other state’s who had an airlift capability. 

The current CASA 295 aircraft have been used to ferry arrested people back to Ireland in extradition cases and also some operational flights. For example it was also recently involved in moving Irish Defence Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal experts to an exercise in Iceland. 

Sources have said that the arrival of the aircraft could enable Ireland to join the European Air Transport Command, which is an EU body in which nations pool heavy lift capabilities.

In 2022 The Journal revealed that there were high level discussions ongoing across the Government’s defence agencies to purchase the aircraft.

It is understood the cost of the project is €50m and it was built by Airbus in Spain – in total three Airbus 295 aircraft have been purchased with the other two planes used for patrolling the massive Irish Exclusive Economic Zone and other jobs such as air ambulance flights.