Casa 212

Le C-212n le petit cargo rustique conçu par Casa dans les années 1970 sous le nom d'Aviocar, continue à intéresser quelques rares clients. Or ce programme pourrait bien connaître une nouvelle vigueur avec l'intérêt soudain que lui portent les Etats-Unis. Non pas pour ses propres forces, mais pour l'acheter en vue d'équiper des pays qui cherchent à se construire ou à reconstituer une force aérienne, comme l'Irak, l'Afghanistan et plusieurs pays affricains. De discrets contacts seraient déjà pris entre le Pentagone et Airbus Military dans ce sens.

C-212 assembly set for Indonesian shift

Future assembly of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] light transport is likely to move to Indonesia as part of an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] initiative to reduce the type's unit cost and allow its Spanish facilities to be dedicated to producing the larger [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] models.
"The question is: can we find an industrial arrangement on which we can continue to produce this aircraft in a very competitive way," says [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Military managing director Domingo Ureña.
"We are working with our colleagues in Indonesia to see how we can jointly offer this product to the market," he reveals. Airbus Military has a long-standing partnership with Indonesian Aerospace on the CN-235, and Ureña says "an agreement has been reached" to extend this to also include assembly of the C-212.
Ureña believes the C-212 can continue to meet requirements for operators in regions such as Asia Pacific, but says: "We need to be able to offer a cheap price. I hope in the short- to medium-term to go back to the market and say that we have the solution."

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Airbus Military is close to concluding a deal with Thailand for an undisclosed number of C-212s configured for fisheries protection duties. The company has also been selected to provide Vietnam with five, although a contract has yet to be signed.
Developed initially for the Spanish air force and first flown in 1971, more than 480 C-212s have been ordered. It is now offered in its -400 production standard, a configuration that is less than 10 years old.
Meanwhile, senior vice-president commercial Antonio Rodriguez-Barberán says Airbus Military is also "starting to consider not a replacement for the C-212, but a re-engineering of the aircraft to make it more modern".
Airbus Military delivers around 24 CN-235s and C-295s a year from its San Pablo site near Seville, Spain, but has not yet produced the C-212 on its new assembly line.
The company is believed to have initiated early studies on the development of a larger successor for both the CN-235 and C-295, but officially says that it is in no rush to replace the types.