Bengaluru: With the global geopolitics changing, India will emerge as the hub for defence manufacturing and exports, especially when it comes to artillery guns, protected and specialised vehicles, Amit Kalyani, Deputy Managing Director at Bharat Forge, part of Kalyani Group said.
Speaking to ThePrint on the sidelines of Aero India, Kalyani, the scion of the Kalyani Group which is betting big on defence, said his company has an export order of about Rs 2,000 crore, a figure that will grow as global companies see and trust the work done by private Indian defence firms.
“We are focused on three areas. One is artillery gun and artillery systems, second is on protected and speciality vehicles, third is components and subsystems, spares and consumables going into multiple areas,” Kalyani said.
Incidentally, while the Kalyani Group has come out with five different artillery systems, they are yet to get an order from the Army here. However, they managed to get an order for their 155mm 39-calibre mounted artillery system from Armenia.
“We are a global company. Yes, we had hoped that the first order would come from India but it is good we got orders from somewhere. Indian orders will follow,” said Kalyani.
“We tick every box required for Indian orders — performance, quality, production rate. Nobody can do production at the rate which we can,” he said.
The big artillery project that the group is eyeing is the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), that has being made jointly with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
However, the order is still elusive even though ATAGS, which was also used for ceremonial firing during Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort last year, has cleared several rounds of trials and the system has been tweaked multiple times as per Army’s requirements.
Asked if Army’s latest Request for Information (RFI) for 155mm/52 caliber towed gun with a weight specification of less than 15 tonnes was a dampener for the Group since ATAGS weigh around 19 tonnes, he said, “We always have products that go right from 7 tonnes to 10, 11 to 14 tonnes. We have five platforms besides the ATAGS. So we will not have any problem fielding any of these guns for the RFIs issued.”
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Export potential
Talking about export potential, he said that in certain product categories, India can become a big exporter. “I am not talking about planes and helicopter systems. I am talking about artillery guns, vehicles, ammunition, spares and a lot of other things. There are definitely a lot of opportunities. This is a start and once people start getting a good experience in private sector companies, this will boom,” he said.
Kalyani added that he already has an export order book of Rs 2,000 crore which includes spares, consumables and others. “It has all happened in 6-8 months. Once the word spreads, it will go up,” he said.
Talking about the Group’s small arms business, Kalyani admitted that he does not think they have made any progress there. “In small arms, the entry barriers are lower and hence there are many players. In small arms, we will end up focusing on small arms in specialised sectors but not in everything,” he said.
Expressing confidence in the fledgling defence ecosystem, he said 2023 is going to be a good year for defence to move from incubation to delivery and it will continue growing.
Pitching in, Neelesh Tungar, COO, defence, of the Kalyani Group, said one big change that has taken place globally is that Europe has become unable to manufacture anything, given the rise in energy cost and labour scarcity. Adding to that is the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
“None of these guys are in a position to supply to the world that is required, so even from an export view, there is a huge void in who is going to supply to whom. Even Russia is out of the game, Ukraine is, Europe is too busy with itself and supplying to Ukraine, and the US also cannot supply to the world,” he said.
“That leaves India in a good position. Manufacturing in India is easy. India will become the manufacturing hub for defence. Whatever you want to produce, India offers the key,” he said. He said it is not just about manufacturing India designed systems but also products of foreign original equipment manufacturers.
He said Kalyani Group sees India becoming a hub for armoured vehicles across the world since the ecosystem for the same is already here.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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