Photographer: Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty Images
The Tata Group, India’s largest conglomerate, is preparing to build a military aircraft to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission to support local defense capabilities and reduce dependence on costly imports.
Tightly held Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. will “show off its capabilities in high-altitude twin-engine aircraft” for military use at a defense exhibition in Bengaluru this week, a company spokesman said on Tuesday, without sharing further details. The Economic Times previously reported that Tata acquired the necessary intellectual property rights from a platform of German origin.
The project, if successful, will mark the first time a private sector entity has managed to build military-level aircraft – a high-tech area of expertise that has traditionally been the exclusive domain of state-sponsored Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. or foreign defense contractors. It also highlights Modi’s effort to “Autonomous India “and”Make In India ‘- its signed programs aimed at increasing local production and consumption.
Border surveillance
The new Tata aircraft, once introduced, can be used for border surveillance among other military purposes. It will be presented at Aero India 2021, the spokesman said. The aerospace and defense exhibition organized every year in the city of Bengaluru in southern India, will take place from 3 to 5 February.
While the Modi initiatives have opened up $ 1 billion in business prospects for Indian conglomerates such as Tata Group, Adani Group, Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra Group, the ability to manufacture military aircraft requires deep pockets and a tenacity to overcome several failures. . Many Indian groups have tried to manufacture such aircraft for decades with little success.
So far, only Hindustan Aeronautics has succeeded. It produced the twin-engine HF-24 Marut six decades ago – India’s first indigenous bomber – and more recently, developed the light fighter aircraft, Texas.
“Any new aerospace initiative is welcome, it adds to the ecosystem,” said Air Marshal Ragunath Nambiar, a former deputy chief of the Indian Air Force. He also warned that it was uncertain whether the Indian Air Force needed enough aircraft “in the near future to justify a production line”.