By N. C. Bipindra

New Delhi: An Australia-based aircraft manufacturer has entered the Indian market with a strategic partner to bid for the navy’s programme to wet lease four amphibious aircraft for surveillance and rescue operations.

Amphbhian Aerospace Industries, a subsidiary of Amphibian Aircraft Holdings (AAH), announced the strategic partnersip with Telangana-based Apogee Aerospace Limited, on February 5, 2026, with an ambitious plan to ultimately set up a final assembly line for its advanced Albatross 2.0 seaplanes in India.

The announcement comes just days after India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her national budget 2026-27 speech on February 1, 2026, proposed incentives to indigenise seaplanes manufacturing and a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme to support seaplanes operations in India.

The strategic collaboration between Amphibian Aerospace and Apogee Aerospace came at an opportune moment, as the Indian government has recognised the utility of the seaplanes after discussing the possibilities for the last decade or more now.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made headlines by traveling in a seaplane from the Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad to Dharoi Dam in December 2017, marking the first time such an aircraft was used for transport in India.

Under the collaboration, the two companies would “establish amphibious aviation as a strategically important capability for India, anchored by the Albatross 2.0 amphibious aircraft platform,” the two companies said in a joint announcement.

The strategic partnership would designate Apogee Aerospace as the Amphibian Aerospace’s exclusive authorised representative partner for the South Asian region, comprising seven nations, in the “Restricted Category” covering defence and government requirements, they said.

The partnership would extend across maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), training, capability development, simulation, and end-to-end systems integration for the aircraft’s militarisation. This apart, the partnership would establish the Albatross 2.0 aircraft’s tail-section manufacturing in India at Apogee Aerospace’s facility to support the global supply chain.

The future plans include setting up a full-scale final assembly line for the Albatross 2.0 in India. But this plan would not depend on the partnership winning contracts in India, according to the leadership of the two companies.

Apogee Aerospace chairman and managing director Wing Commander MVN Sai (Retired) told Defence Capital that the partnership would invest INR 150 crore to INR 200 crore in setting up the tail-section manufacturing in India, and another INR 300 crore to INR 350 crore for MRO, training, simulation and full systems integration facility.

Sai said the two companies have multiple options in where they would set up the tail-section manufacturing, indicating that they already had partners in several locations, apart from his own facilities in Telangana.

Amphibian Aerospace president and chief executive officer Gopi Reddy told Defence Capital that there was an obvious choice that they had in India’s coastal states for setting up the final assembly line for Albatross 2.0, as it would need a sea front for the aircraft testing and trials.

Reddy said at the launch event that the partners were awaiting the Indian Navy’s Request for Information (RFI) for wet leasing four amphibious aircraft for four years to turn into a Request for Proposal (RFP), tender in official parlance. “We are absolutely confident of being both the T1 (technically qualified) and L1 (lowest commercial bidder) in the RFP,” Reddy added.

The Indian Navy had in early January released the RFI for wet leasing amphibious aircraft, aimed at plugging a long-standing operational gap in the its reconnaissance, surveillance, and search-and-rescue (SAR) capabilities. The wet lease model, under which the lessor provides not just the aircraft but also trained crew, maintenance, and insurance, will allow the navy to achieve immediate operational readiness without waiting for infrastructure creation or lengthy pilot training cycles.

The companies interested in the programme have to submit their responses by March 2, 2025, and this included opportunities for foreign original equipment manufacturer’s authorised representatives to bid. The navy’s bid to shore up its amphibian capabilities came amidst growing maritime security challenges across India’s 11,000-plus-km-long coastline and strategically sensitive island territories such as Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep.

Reddy said, the partnership saw an immediate need of 25 to 30 amphibious aircraft in India in the next three to four years. In anticipation of the opportunities, both in India and other friendly South Asian nations, Apogee Aerospace has already booked 15 Albatross 2.0 aircraft from Amphibian Aerospace for INR 3,500 crore, he said.

At present, Amphibian Aerospace’s US-based facility was producing 50 Albatross 2.0 aircraft, with capacity to scale up manufacturing to more of the seaplanes, as orders pour in. Apogee Aerospace, as part of the partnership, has invested USD 7 million (INR 65 crore) in Amphibian Aircraft Holdings, showing its long-term strategic alignment with the amphibious aircraft manufacturing business.

Albatross 2.0 is, at present, the world’s only FAA- and EASA-certified transport category amphibious aircraft for up to 28 seats in the Registered Passenger Transport sector, while other certified passenger aircraft makers such as Boeing, Airbus, Cessna, etc, do not have an amphibious plane in their product portfolio.

Commenting on the partnership, Amphibian Aerospace founder and executive chairman Khoa Hoang noted that amphibious aircraft could be deployed for not just Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) by the military, but also in operations against piracy, preventing crimes at sea, apart from use in strategic sectors such as deepsea mining for rare earths.

Apart from the navy tender, the partnership is looking at future opportunities from the Indian Coast Guard, Central Armed Police Forces, Border Security Force, and such institutions that operate on water bodies. Alongside the military offering, the Amphibian Aerospace and Apogee Aerospace partnership is also looking at the huge civil aviation opportunities for its Albatross 2.0 aircraft, as the regional and island connectivity programmes and maritime tourism sector mature in India.

NOTE: Follow Defence.Capital on Arattai.
NOTE: Follow Defence.Capital on Telegram.
NOTE: Follow Defence.Capital on WhatsApp.