Defence public sector Bharat Electronics Limited is planning to set up ₹500 crore Greenfield weapon systems facility at Lepakshi in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.

“Land to the extent of 900 to 1,000 acres is being acquired and currently we are in talks with the Andhra Pradesh Government,” SK Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Electronics Ltd, told BusinessLine .

The new facility will focus on design, development and production of all kinds of weapon systems such as fire control, missile systems and other weapon upgrade programmes.

“The facility is expected to be ready in two years and we plan to develop weapon systems keeping in mind future contracts from Army, Navy and Air Force,” he added.

Akash Missile Talking about Akash Missile System, Sharma said, “The company has successfully completed the trials and now we are gearing up for manufacturing the system for Indian Air Force.”

The Army version of the Akash Missile System is getting ready for production and is expected to be delivered within two to four years.

Akash Missile System is an ₹14,000 crore order bagged by Bharat Dynamics Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited is a partner in the venture.

Bharat Dynamics Ltd is the main integrator partner while the electronic systems are being developed by Bharat Electronics Limited.

“Our share in the total order is in the range of ₹3,000 crore to ₹4,000 crore, which will be delivered over the next four years,” explained Sharma. Currently, the Ministry of Defence has taken up development of projects such as Tactical Communication Systems (TCS) and Battlefield Management System (BMS) under ‘Make in India’. In the TCS project, Bharat Electronics Ltd, is the lead manager to assemble it. Allaying fears of ‘Make in India’ and entry of private players in defence production, Sharma said, “The new acquisition programme of Ministry of Defence and competition under ‘Make in India’ will not impact the company.”

Electronic Voting Machines Talking about unchanged defence and civilian ratio over decades, Sharma said, “We are still at 80:20 ratio due to national priorities.”

The company has emerged as the single largest producer of Electronic Voting Machines in the country and is now exploring export orders.

“Our Electronic Voting Machines are in great demand after positive feedback from South Africa and Namibia,” said Sharma.

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