OIS, French Firms Sign JVs For Aircraft Devices, UAV Manufacturing

Indian firm OIS Aerospace group today announced the two joint ventures with French companies Rafaut and LH Aviation for manufacturing advanced weapons-to-aircraft interface devices and multi-sensor tactical UAVs.

The first JV with Rafaut will make 'pile-ons' for the fighter aircrafts to carry the weapons, besides conducting further research and developments to make the product more advanced and suitable as per the requirements in India, Economic Times reported.

The second JV with LH Aviation, a French aircraft manufacture, will set up a separate manufacturing plant in India for multi-sensor tactical UAV fighter aircraft that can fly up to 24 hours.

OIS Group's Founder Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Bhandari announced at Paris Air Show 2015 that his group has come forward to join the Make in India initiative of the Narendra Modi government through these pacts in the highly-important defence sector.

Bhandari said that the scale of investments across various projects of OIS Group is over $77.7 million.

The JV between Rafaut and OIS Advanced Technology would include an exclusive strategic collaboration for R&D, transfer of technology, manufacturing, marketing, sales and services of a range of weapons- to- aircraft interface devices and flight controls equipment and sub-systems, the report said.

Bhandari mentioned that these systems can be attached to Rafale, Mirage and various other aircraft models as per the requirement and are based on high-end technologies.

Bhandari further said that it would make a new class of high-endurance MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAVs in India under LH Aviation JV.