Consolidating its various businesses across aerospace and defence under a single entity, Tata Sons has decided to provide a unified offering designed for Make in India. To be called Tata Aerospace & Defence (Tata A&D), the new entity proposes to leverage the full range of expertise and capabilities from across the Group related to land mobility solutions, aerospace, weapon systems, sensors and Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence (C4I).
The move is part of Tata Sons’ Chairman N Chandrasekaran’s plan to drive synergies across group companies. A similar restructuring has been done in other businesses including the real estate units within the Tata group.
The new defence company is to be invested in the development of indigenous platforms uniquely suited for the Indian defence forces and engage in exports. Subsequent to the consolidation, Tata A&D will draw synergies from entities across the group, including Tata Motors’ Defence Division, TAL Manufacturing Solutions Limited (subsidiary of Tata Motors), Tata Power’s Strategic Engineering Division, Tata Advanced Materials Limited, and Tata Advanced Systems Limited.
Global partner
Since many of the Group companies have already teamed up with leading aerospace and defence firms, and are part of the global supply chain, even while some are a global single source provider, the new company aims to be a partner of choice for global OEMs.
In addition to the growing list of joint ventures and collaborations with leading global equipment manufacturers, Tata A&D proposes to bring together over 6,000 employees, and have production facilities in the States of Telangana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra.
In a statement, N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons said the formation of the new company, a single unified entity, would allow the Group “to better target emerging opportunities in aerospace and defence, and engage holistically with customers both in India and globally.”
Competitive move
Banmali Agrawala, President, Infrastructure and Defence & Aerospace, Tata Sons, said, the new company would be better equipped to execute larger and more complex projects and be more globally competitive.