Photographer: Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty Images
The Tata group, India’s largest conglomerate, is preparing to build a military plane to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission to support local defense capabilities and reduce dependence on costly imports.
Very closed Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. “will show its capabilities in high-altitude twin-engine aircraft” for military use at a defense exhibition in Bengaluru this week, a company spokesman said on Tuesday, without sharing further details. The Economic Times previously reported that the firm Tata had acquired the necessary intellectual property rights from a platform of German origin.
The company, if successful, will be the first time a private-sector entity has managed to build military-grade aircraft, an area of high-tech expertise that has traditionally been the exclusive domain of state-sponsored aircraft. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. or foreign defense contractors. It also underscores Modi’s drive to “Autonomous India “i”Make In India ‘: its exclusive programs aimed at boosting local manufacturing and consumption.
Border surveillance
The new Tata aircraft, once introduced, can be used for border surveillance among other military purposes. It will be presented at Aero India 2021, the spokesperson said. The annual aerospace and defense exhibition in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru will be held from 3 to 5 February.
Although Modi’s initiatives have opened up billion-dollar business prospects for Indian conglomerates such as the Tata Group, Adani Group, Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra Group, the ability to manufacture military aircraft requires deep pockets and tenacity to overcome multiple setbacks. . Many Indian groups have been trying to manufacture these aircraft for decades, with little success.
So far, only Hindustan Aeronautics has achieved this feat. Six decades ago it produced the twin-engine HF-24 Marut, India’s first indigenous bomber, and more recently, developed the light fighter aircraft, Yews.
“Any new company in the field of aerospace is welcome, it is added to the ecosystem,” said Air Marshal Ragunath Nambiar, former deputy chief of the Indian Air Force. He also warned that he was unsure whether the Indian Air Force needed enough aircraft “in the near future to justify a production line”.