Keeping with the government’s decision to promote the domestic defence industry, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the design authority and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the Dhruv, an indigenous helicopter, is prepared to offer transfer of technology, technical assistance, and license rights for its civil production.

In what is being termed a major boost to defence manufacturing and the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, for the first time HAL has offered its intiention to share technology of the civil version of advanced light helicopter Dhruv, with a private entity in India for mass production.

The potential for Indian private companies to participate in the manufacture of the 5.5 tonne class, multi-role, multi-mission helicopter certified for military and civil applications, is huge.

In a bid to “service the potential demand to different customers in the civil sector in shorter time span and continued product support, HAL intends to develop a reliable Indian Partner for the purpose of manufacture and supply of Dhruv Civil helicopter through transfer of technology (ToT) under license,” the company said in its expression of interest (EOI) document.

Life-time support

The selected Indian partner will also be required to provide support to customers throughout the life of the product, for 20 years, thereby ensuring a long term business relationship, the company said.

Interested private companies are invited to file an EOI for the mega deal. The deadline to submit an EOI is June 4.

HAL’s expectations

HAL is looking for an Indian partner, who has around five years of experience in engineering and aerospace industry, including manufacturing and assembly, and has a net worth of ₹2,000 crore and a minimum turnover of ₹2,500 crore.

The partner should possess skilled and qualified manpower, should be registered in India or have majority holding by Indian stakeholders and should be willing to enter into the strategic collaboration with HAL, the EOI noted.

While HAL would provide technical assistance and the license right for the Advanced Light Helicopter, the company said Dhruv is expected to have potential demand in the domestic as well as foreign markets, “due to flexibility of configuration for different roles.”

Earlier this month, HAL carried out the first flight of a Hawk-i advanced jet trainer fitted with an indigenously developed real-time operating system (RTOS), to cater to the increased complexity of modern avionics software.

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