European aerospace giant Airbus Group SE and India’s Mahindra Group have inked a deal to jointly build helicopters as the Indian government moves to upgrade the nation’s aging military hardware, the companies said.
The joint venture is to be set up within months, “aiming to become the first private manufacturer of helicopters in India,” the firms said in a statement on Friday.
“The joint venture will be dedicated to supplying the Indian armed forces with made-in-India, state-of-the-art helicopters of high reliability, quality and safety standard based on combat-proven platforms,” Airbus Helicopters president and chief executive Guillaume Faury said in the statement.
India is undergoing a vast defense modernization program worth about US$100 billion, partly to keep up with rivals Pakistan and China.
The administration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which took power in May last year, has approved a string of contracts for new military hardware that had stalled under the previous left-leaning Indian National Congress Party.
Modi also wants to end India’s status as the world’s No. 1 defense importer and to have 70 percent of hardware manufactured domestically by the turn of the decade, he has said.
In August last year, his administration lifted a cap on foreign investment in defense from 26 percent to 49 percent.
The Airbus-Mahindra joint venture is to place bids for reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters, naval utility and naval multirole helicopters.
“Together, we will produce India’s next-generation helicopters that will not only answer our country’s defense needs, but will also have the potential for exports in the future,” Mahindra Defence Systems Ltd chairman S.P. Shukla said.
The companies did not detail how much they would invest under the deal.
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