Texas-based technology provider National Instruments is upgrading its offerings to the domestic defence sector.
It will now offer products that go into actual weapons manufacture .
Since it set foot in India 16 years ago, the company has been confined to supplying hardware and software tools for various sub-systems , such as signal intelligence, gunshot detection and simulation systems.
“We are now looking at getting into making of high-end technology products that could be used for making weapons. Our products will focus on the control system of weapons,” Jayaram Pillai, Managing Director (India, Russia, Arabia), told
The company’s embedded electronic products are currently being used in various weapons systems that are in prototype or in-flight stage of implementation. “Very soon, we will be scaling up to providing the products for building weapons on a larger scale,” he said, adding that the firm sees big opportunities after the new defence procurement norms were put in place.
Expanding network
As part of its strategy to expand its presence in India, it is looking at enlarging its network of local partners to increase the scale of indigenisation of its offerings. In the last year, it has taken on board at least 10 new partners, taking the network to a total of 17.
Pillai said the firm was currently involved in a project to develop electronic firing ranges (that do not take up much space) for shooting practice for the Army. At the time of Independence, India had about 1,500 firing ranges for shooting practice, but over the years the number has dwindled to a few hundred due to space constraints.
It is now helping in the development of an electronic-controlled firing range that can detect the accuracy of a gun shot by the noise it produces. “This is in the prototype stage currently. The advantage is that a firing range of this type can be set up in a contained area,” Pillai said.