Adani Aero Defence Systems and Technologies Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani group, has entered the field of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) by tying up with Israeli firm Elbit-ISTAR and India's Alpha Design Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
The group signed statement of intent with the Israeli firm, which reflects the realisation of "Make in India for global requirements" objective, the company said in a statement. It added that the firm plans to create a tiered vendor base for supporting, indigenisation and localisation requirements. It also seeks to set up a final assembly and integration line, including MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facilities by incorporating true transfer of technology for supporting the product range during its life cycle, the statement said.
India has been trying to give more leeway to private defence production by formulating better policies, since the public sector units are lagging behind in delivery, assimilating new technology and making improvisations. The statement reiterated that the coming together of the companies is "aligned to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative."
The Adani Group is worth over $10 billion. Adani Aero Defence is interested in "design, technology development, technical collaboration, system integration services for aerospace and defence equipment and systems."
Elbit Systems is an Israeli defence electronics company, operating in aerospace, land and naval systems and an array of other related sectors. The company is known for its Elbit Hermes unmanned aerial vehicle and its variants. Alpha Design Technologies is an Indian company that specialises in design, development and production of defence electronics and avionics equipment and systems.
Adani's tie-up with the Israeli firm comes on the heels of the recent news about a joint venture between Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence and Rafael Advanced Systems of Israel. The Economic Times had earlier reported that the Adani group was exploring possible partnerships with Swedish aerospace company Saab, Italy's Finmeccanica and U.S-based Textron.
The Adani group owns India's largest private port with a special economic zone (SEZ) and is perhaps keen to make use of this facility to create a defence and aerospace zone that can be well connected by sea and land.
