 "Reliance Defence receives 16 new industrial licenses for equipment manufacture")
Reliance Infrastructure’s wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Defence has received 16 industrial licenses for manufacture of equipment ranging from small arms, heavy weapons, armoured vehicles, ammunition, explosives, electronic warfare systems, missiles, UAVs and directed energy weapon systems, laser systems for target destruction and C4I systems for all defence platforms.
Of the 16 new licences given to Reliance Defence, 11 pertain to land systems, three for naval systems and the remaining two cover niche technologies across the defence spectrum, the company said in a statement.
With these new 16 licences, Reliance Defence now has total 27 licences to address the entire spectrum of defence equipment manufacturing.
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The land systems include design, development and production of heavy weapons (artillery guns, air defence guns, mortars, multi barrel rocket launchers, heavy machine guns) of all calibres, electronic warfare systems, ammunition, explosives, tanks, infantry combat vehicles (ICV), directed energy weapon systems, small arms laser systems for target destruction and C4I Systems for various land platforms.
Reliance Land Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Defence will be the lead venture for the manufacturing of missiles, explosives, heavy weapons, tanks and ICVs and Reliance SED Ltd will be the lead entity for manufacture of electronic warfare systems, directed energy weapon systems and laser systems for target destruction.
The key programmes in these segments have budgetary allocation in excess of Rs 50,000 crore, the company said. The Indian Army will spend an additional Rs 50,000 crore over the next 10 to 15 years on different combat vehicles. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has already given a go ahead for Air Defence Missile Systems worth Rs 40,000 crore, Air Defence Guns valued at Rs 17,000 crore and Mounted Gun Systems worth Rs 15,800 crore. Other projects cleared include upgrades for BMP2 and T?72 tanks, digitisation of Pechora Air Defence System and Electronic Warfare System worth Rs 30,000 crore. Total opportunities already approved are in excess of Rs 200,000 crore for land systems.
Reliance Defence also intends to address a large potential international market for combat vehicles in West Asia, Africa and South America. It wants to develop an infantry combat vehicle which will not only address the domestic requirement but can also address global requirements estimated at Rs 3,50,000 crore ($50 billion).
Reliance Unmanned Systems, another subsidiary of Reliance Defence, intends to target various requirements of the Indian Navy, Army and Air Force for unmanned systems. The combined value of these programmes over the next 10 years is expected to exceed Rs 30,000 crore.
Reliance Naval Systems, a strategic business unit of Reliance Defence, has been issued with three licences to manufacture of underwater systems, electro-optical systems, underwater weapons and C4I systems. The naval system programmes will be undertaken by Reliance Defence and Engineering (formerly Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company Ltd) which owns the Pipavav dockyard in Gujarat and which was acquired by Reliance Infrastructure, being the largest acquisition in the Indian defence sector. The company will target a combined market of over Rs 50,000 crore for the naval systems.
Reliance Land Systems has acquired land at Pithampur SEZ, Indore, to set up a land systems park under the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme for indigenous manufacturing of broad spectrum of land systems equipment. This greenfield project will address the Rs 2,00,000 crore domestic and Rs 3,50,000 crore global opportunities in the land system segment in the defence industry.
Reliance Defence has industrial licences for the full spectrum of military platforms.