Kalyani Group, Rafael JV To Develop Missiles, Remote Weapon Systems, Armour Solutions

Kalyani Group has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems on Thursday to develop and manufacture a wide range of missiles, remote weapon systems and advanced armour solutions.

N JV. Kalyani Group Chairman and Managing Director Baba Kalyani was quoted as saying by Business Standards that the investment would be substantial in the JV, which would be executed through Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd.

“For the past one year, we were in talks with Rafael to explore a joint venture opportunity. Now, we have entered into an agreement with them. It is absolutely essential for us to have a tie-up with a foreign partner, as they bring technology and expertise,” he said in the report on Friday.

“This is one of the first major joint ventures to be formed in the defence sector after the government hiked the cap on foreign direct investment in the defence sector to 49 per cent. It is also in line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ policy to indigenise development and production of defence equipment,” Kalyani added.

The Rafael-Kalyani JV will explore orders from the Indian defence forces and might look at exports at a later stage. On the products side, the integration of missile systems will be done by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL), a listed defence company based in Hyderabad. “We are looking at land near Hyderabad to set up a manufacturing facility and we wish to put in place a new factory within a year,” Baba Kalyani told Business Standard.

Rafael will provide the JV technology to manufacture Spike missiles for the Indian armed forces, for which the government is slated to float a tender soon. “The JV will also manufacture weapons systems and advanced armour solutions for Indian, as well as global customers of Rafael,” Kalyani said.

The group would broadly focus on four new areas — artillery weapons, anti-tank missiles, armoured vehicles and aerospace components, he added.