Tata conglomerate’s defense and aerospace division is turning to building drones, artillery and combat vehicles as India seeks to reduce its reliance on foreign hardware, which has made it one of the world’s top military importers.
New Delhi depends on Russia for military supplies, and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine this year highlighted India’s need for a wider range of military options. According to the Stockholm Institute for International Peace, her 46% of India’s military imports from 2017 to 2021 came from Russia, followed by France and the United States.
India increased its defense budget by almost 10% in its February budget. One Indian company that wants to capitalize on New Delhi’s efforts to shift military purchases to domestic suppliers is salt-to-sensors conglomerate Tata.
Sukaran Singh, chief executive of Tata Advanced Systems Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, argues that India needs to develop its own technology to catch up.
“When you get a technology transfer from abroad, it’s like time stands still,” Singh told the Financial Times. “Things have progressed, even in the last six months,” he added, citing lessons from the war in Ukraine.
TASL has deployed up to 350 engineers to work on developing its own drones, artillery and war vehicles, the company said in an email. “[The group] TASL has decided to do this at their own risk,” Singh said.
That risk is starting to pay off, with the Indian Army ordering TASL’s uniquely designed self-guided bombs due for delivery in March 2023. He said he expects the military to order the towed artillery developed by TASL in conjunction with India’s National Defense Research and Development Organization.
This year, TASL and Airbus won the contract to build the C295 troop carrier for the Indian Air Force after a ten-year bidding process.
The government has taken steps to encourage domestic purchases, including phasing out hundreds of imports, but Singh acknowledged challenges remain.
“Procurement remains a complex thing around the world for defense,” Singh said. “India is moving away from public-sector, government-owned and government-controlled manufacturing and towards more private enterprises.”
India’s military has particularly complex requirements, operating everywhere from the scorching deserts to the high-altitude Himalayan border with China, where a deadly clash took place in 2020.
The government opened defense production to the private sector in 2001, and TASL is not the only company pursuing its own military research and development. Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro says it has developed and industrialized more than 50 defense products, both internally and in collaboration with the Defense Research and Development Agency.
This is due to Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man, who has partnered with Israel’s Elbit to manufacture drones and Uzi maker Israel Weapon Industries to manufacture guns in India. Contrast with the defense sector.
TASL has built its aerospace business through joint ventures with foreign manufacturers, manufacturing some aircraft for export in India, from building Boeing Apache helicopter airframes to Lockheed F-16 fighter wings. .
“We’ve partnered with just about everyone except who happens to be Russian, and it just became that way,” Singh said.
The company wants to balance India’s defense needs with overseas markets. “Because the industrial structure is still very famine and feast,” Singh said.