Sunday, February 17, 2008

A good news for Aeronautical-Aerospace-Aviation lovers - Tata ties up with Israeli firm to develop defence products

One of the largest private sector players in the Indian defence industry, the Tata Group, on Sunday signed an MoU with Israel's largest aerospace and defence company, Israel Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (IAI) to develop and manufacture defence equipment like missiles, UAVs, radars, electronic warfare systems and Home Land Security (HLS) systems.

The MoU to establish a Joint Venture Company in India was signed between Itzhak Nissan, President and CEO, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd (IAI), and Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons at the CII-sponsored Defence Expo.

"We believe the coming together of the Tata and IAI will positively impact the growth of the defence industry in India and complement the efforts of our defence labs, Ordnance Factory Board and Defence Public Sector Undertakings," Ratan Tata said in a statement.

While the new company will develop, manufacture and support a "wide range of defence and aerospace products," it will also help the Israeli company meet its offset obligations.

"The new JV Company will perform offset work for IAI and other defence and aerospace programmes in India, and it will establish indigenous capabilities to best support IAI's Indian customers," a joint statement by the companies said.

Tata has been in the news for the past few days for the deals it has signed with foreign defence companies like American firms Boeing and Sikorsky and European defence giant EADS.

IAI is Israel's largest industrial exporter and has expertise in the fields of unmanned air vehicles (UAV), radars, airborne early warning systems, Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missiles (ATBM), missiles, satellites and launchers, upgrading of military aircraft and helicopters and maintenance and conversion of commercial aircraft.

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