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Airbus Helicopters, a part of Airbus Group, which is a European aerospace and defence major, is in talks with several Indian private and public sector companies for a partnership to manufacture reconnaissance, surveillance, and naval utility helicopters. The company intends to form a joint venture or a consortium to bid for upcoming orders from the army and the navy, a company official said.
“We are talking to many companies. These include Tata Group, Reliance Industries, Mahindra and Mahindra, and defence public sector undertakings (PSUs) such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for forming a possible joint venture,” Rainer Farid, vice-president, sales and customer relations for Airbus Helicopters in India told the Business Standard at the Aero India airshow here on Friday.
“We started a dialogue with Indian companies from October after the army and the navy floated a request for information (RFI),” Farid said.
Airbus has participated in the RFI process. However, he said talks with Indian companies were still in initial stages.
The army wants to acquire more than 300 reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters. The navy wants to buy 100 utility helicopters.
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Through the proposed joint venture, Airbus intends to bring to India its light-utility AS550 Fennec helicopter with single engine for reconnaissance and surveillance, and medium-sized AS565 Panther helicopter for naval utility purposes. These helicopters are capable of carrying weapons, Farid said.
The AS550 Fennec and AS555 Fennec 2 are lightweight, multipurpose military helicopters. AS565 Panther is a military version of medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin.
“The RFI floated by the armed forces requires us to form a joint venture with Indian companies for supply of these helicopters. We are ready to set up manufacturing with the local companies in India. We expect some kind of a partnership to take shape by the end of this year,” Farid said.
Initially, the proposed partnership would manufacture and deliver helicopters only to the armed forces and it may look at the civilian market later, he added.
“This is not the first time Airbus is talking to HAL. Both have been talking for a couple of years for an alliance,” HAL sources said.
Currently, in India, only HAL manufactures helicopters at its Bengaluru complex and is in the process of setting up a facility in Karnataka to make light-utility helicopters. It has acquired 610 acres land for it.
HAL has a long-standing relationship with Airbus for the supply of doors. It has completed 25 years of its supply contract with the firm and supplied more than 2,500 doors.
It is also seeking additional orders from Airbus, HAL’s chairman, T Suvarna Raju, said at a function at Aero India on Friday.
The demand for helicopters in India from both the private and public sectors is estimated at 600 in ten years.
Want to make futuristic products with India: Russian makers
Keen to continue its dominant position in the Indian defence market, Russian makers say these are willing to partner India to make products that will "find the markets of the future".
Promising an array of technological transfer and joint production under the central government’s Make-in-India initiative, the Russian makers said they were eager to partner Indian private firms, especially in the aerospace sector.
Terming 2015 an "important year", state-owned United Aircraft Corporation's (UAC) president, Yuri Slyusar, said he was hopeful the much-delayed plans for the joint production of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) with India would take off with full steam this year.
He also hoped the joint production of the Multi-role Transport Aircraft will firmc up. "2015 is when we will go from a preliminary design to a detailed one," he said on the sidelines of the Aero India air show here.
United Aircraft Cooperation is an umbrella organisation of Russian aerospace industry.
Slyusar said that Russia and India together will "design and manufacture the products that will find the markets of the future".
"This is the evidence of confidence of both sides. It is evidence of our good future prospects," he said, pointing out that Russians have been in Indian defence sector for nearly 50 years.
Russia has been a dominant player in Indian defence market for years but it's now facing tough competition from other countries like US, France, and Israel. About 60 per cent of Indian defence equipment continues to be Russian or those made by countries of the former Soviet bloc.
Outlining the plans, Slyusar said Russia and India could jointly manufacture the engine for the SU30 MKI, the frontline fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force.
He appreciated Indian engineers for having mastered the art of overhauling of SU30MKI engines.
State-run HAL had in January this year handed over to IAF the first overhauled Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter plane making India the only nation to re-do the Russian-made aircraft.
Slyusar also said he is interested in spreading Russian ties with Indian industry and their cooperation to commercial aviation sector.
