Israel Aerospace scouting for more partnerships in India

Even as Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is scouting for takeover targets in the US, Israel’s largest defence contractor is looking to expand its presence in India by teaming up with domestic majors.

Though it has a collaboration in place with several Indian companies like the Kalyani Group, Wipro, Dynamatic Technologies and Taneja Aerospace related to air defence, composite structures, unmanned aerial vehicles and military aircraft seats, IAI is keen to seal more alliances with local firms in order to boost its international supply chain.

An official pointed out that signing a contract for the first time with State enterprise Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) this May, to jointly produce four long range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM) systems for the Indian Navy, was a precursor to the company’s decision to engage with more Indian companies.

“The Indian government company is the main contractor. We have alliances also with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and recently delivered the first LRSAM to the DRDO,” the official said. IAI has a wide variety of strategic defence systems such as the MRSAM (Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile) and LRSAM.

The Indian Army is set to get an advanced MRSAM system by 2020, which will be capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles, aircraft, helicopters, drones and surveillance aircraft.

The DRDO recently signed a ₹17,000-crore deal with the IAI to jointly produce the MRSAM missile system.

IAI’s Executive Vice-President Levi told BusinessLine that the company “was proud to work on the development of the LRSAM air and missile defence system together with the DRDO. This is a long-term co-operation product.”

Levi also hailed the delivery of the first missile “from an indigenous production line” and termed it “a technological dream come true.”

Signalling it as a prime example of the Indian industry’s technical prowess and capabilities, Levi said the missile was a product of the collaboration and the engineering skills of the IAI, the Indian government, the DRDO and several other Indian partners. Given DRDO’s collaboration with IAI subsidiary Elta and Rafael, the local production line was provided with Israeli-made assemblies that were integrated with Indian-made assemblies into an operational missile.

Engaging with Indian companies such as BEL and Bharat Dynamics Ltd , Levi said the advanced air and missile defence system LRSAM has many technological capabilities.

LRSAM is also a boost to Make in India, he added, given the large scale local manufacturing. Several Indian companies have established production lines, in India, for the LRSAM programme.

Explaining that Indian collaborations were key to execute any ‘Make in India’ plans, the official added that the company was looking forward to rolling out its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) within the next two years of a deal being finalised. India continues to be a key market for the company’s UAVs like Heron and Harop. IAI is set to accelerate the process to supply the other air and missile defence systems to India.

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