Rockwell Collins Taps Business In India

Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
February 24, 2010

NEW DELHI — Rockwell Collins has been awarded a contract for Electronic Counter-Counter Measure radio modules by government-owned Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL).
The contract includes GPS hand-held receivers, featuring Graphical User Interfaces and moving maps for portable precision navigation capability. The component hardware card sets will be integrated into ground-based Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radios for use by Indian armed forces for command and control of ground-to-ground and ground-to-air communications.
“India is looking at more cohesive armed forces and for homeland security,” said Thud Chee Chan, vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific for Rockwell Collins.
“We are [therefore] looking at building up the indigenous industry and are ready to work for local companies and partner with them.”
The company also has responded to a request for proposals for network-centric operations for the Indian navy.
Rockwell is looking to increase the ratio of its international business from 30 percent up to 40-42 percent as compared to U.S. revenues, Chan told Aerospace DAILY.
Rockwell Collins launched a design center in Hyderabad in late 2008 with 150 engineers. “We want to establish a footprint in India and grow our systems engineers to 500 in the next two years,” Chan says.
On the recent ECIL contract, Chan says: “This is a strategic win for Rockwell Collins, as it begins a highly valued relationship with a major defense company in India, an important growth market for our company.”
The company also is looking at focusing on the commercial aviation market in India and for upgrades to older transport helicopters. In 2005 it signed a contract with Indian airline IndiGo to provide avionics for its fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft. This includes the WXR-2100 MultiScan Weather Radar, which provides weather detection from the nose of the aircraft to 320 nautical miles.
The airline also signed a 12-year contract for Rockwell Collins’ Dispatch Plus maintenance program.
Other equipment selected by IndiGo includes the ADF-900 Automatic Direction Finder, DME-900 Distance Measuring Equipment, HFS 900 D High Frequency System, CPL-920D Digital Antenna Coupler, VHF-920 Very High Frequency Transceiver, VOR-900 VHF Omnidirectional Radio and AOC-900 Aircraft Operational Communications datalink.
- Neelam Mathews (mathews.neelam@gmail.com)