Mahindra Group, Embraer ink pact to offer C-390 millennium aircraft to IAF

Mumbai: Brazilian aerospace major Embraer Defense & Security and India's Mahindra Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly offer the C-390 Millennium for the Indian Air Force's Medium Transport Aircraft programme. The deal aims to establish local manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance capabilities for the aircraft in India.

The agreement expands on a memorandum of understanding signed in February 2024, which outlined initial cooperation between the two companies. The new pact takes the collaboration further by defining roles in marketing, industrialisation and supply-chain development. Both firms will work closely with India's defence establishment and private aerospace ecosystem to identify potential partners for production and maintenance.

Airbus Helicopters had awarded a contract to Mahindra Aerostructures in August to manufacture and assemble the main fuselage of the European aircraft maker's H125 light single-engine helicopter. This was in addition to the contract to build the fuselage for H130, which was announced earlier in 2025.


Mahindra Defence Systems, part of the Mahindra Group and established in 2012, manufactures armoured and tactical vehicles for the Indian Armed Forces. Its products include the armored light specialist vehicle (ALSV or Armado), mine protected vehicles, and vehicle-mounted mortar systems. Mahindra Aerostructures is a unit of Mahindra Defence Systems.