AERO INDIA LIVE! Indian Companies Are Climbing the Aerospace Supply Chain

AIN NEWS LIVE FROM AEROINDIA » 2013

by  NEELAM MATHEWS

February 4, 2013, 3:11 PM

Slowly and steadily, a handful of Indian aerospace companies are getting absorbed into the global supply chain of OEMs. For instance, in the opto-electronics segment, the new Samtel-Thales Avionics joint venture “plans to become the first electro-optic house in the country,” said executive director Puneet Kaura. By 2015, the company intends to supply the infrared search and track system as standard equipment for the Dassault Rafale fighter for the Indian Air Force. Meanwhile, the Thales-Bharat Electronics surface radar joint venture is on track and will be fully operational by March, Eric Lenseigne, Thales’s country head for India, told AIN. “Offsets at a later stage could be a possibility,” he added.

The joint venture between Tata Advanced Systems and Lockheed Martin following the purchase of six C-130 military transports by India “is going well,” according to Abhay Paranjape, Lockheed Martin’s director and national executive for India. With production of wing components, tail and sub structures started, the facility in Hyderabad supplies directly to the Lockheed Martin assembly line in the U.S. The Indian plant will soon become the sole supplier source for the components.

Meanwhile, the Tata-Sikorsky joint venture is ramping up production of cabins for S-92 helicopters from Tata Advanced Systems based in Hyderabad’s Aerospace Special Economic Zone. By the end of March it will increase its capacity from two to three cabins a month, according to a Tata spokesman.