Rs 250cr Defence Export Target Set For 1998-99

Buoyed by a 30 per cent growth in defence exports, the defence ministry has planned an aggressive export drive for the next three years starting with a Rs 250 crore target for 1998-99.

The defence exports rose from Rs 143 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 186.27 crore in the next fiscal.

It is expected to touch Rs 300 crore by 2000. By then, the ministry expects to evolve a system for marketing, customer feedback, research and innovation, sources said.

The ministry's production wing will use the Aero India show in Bangalore in

December to launch a marketing drive aimed at African, Latin American and CIS countries. Links will be forged with foreign defence exhibition oganisations to exhibit Indian wares abroad.

Defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) besides some private suppliers to the services and defence research laboratories will be the main organisations to export their goods.

The focus will be on indigenously developed value-added systems like software, electronic systems and special alloys. The idea is to build on the success in areas like the autolay software for aircraft design developed as part of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project and exported to the US.

Thanks to the vast inventory of Russian weaponry all over the developing world, India has a ready market as a manufacturer of the components of Russian built tanks, aircraft, ships and small arms.

The worldwide market for these equipment is estimated to be $3 billion a year. Since there are no patent rights involved, India is free to tap this market.

India will also hawk its Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) at the Bangalore show. The defence ministry sees a ready market for this among African and Asian countries as it is supposed to be the cheapest chopper in its weight class.

The ALH with a price tag of $4 million can be adapted to a variety of roles from combat to civilian transport.

HAL had exported four Chetak choppers to Namibia last year, its first major export of defence helicopters. There have been several more inquiries from that country and some other African nations since then.