French Defence Manufacturer Thales, Kalyani Group Partner To Design, Develop Defence Systems Under Make In India

Thales Group, France based defence equipment manufacturing company and India based Kalyani group have entered into a partnership to design, develop and manufacture defence equipment in India. The collaboration comes as a boost to the Make in India Initiative of the Government of India.

In a statement to Times of India, Kalyani Group President and CEO for Defence and Aerospace division, Rajinder Singh Bhatia said, “This alliance will combine Thales's advance technology, knowledge and experience as an OEM with world class design, development and manufacturing capabilities of the Kalyani Group.”

The deal was signed on board HMAS Canberra (a helicopter landing dock ship of Royal Australian Navy) by the respective executives of Kalyani Group and Thales Defence. The collaboration will enable the groups to design and develop next-generation defence systems which include variants of F90 assault rifle which the Australian Defence Forces use.

Speaking on the deal Kevin Wall, VP Vehicles and tactical systems (Thales) said, “This new collaboration will help us serve India as well as international markets. This partnership is the result of our ambition to support soldiers on operations with next generation, cutting edge technology and reaffirms our commitment to India”.

Thales group has earlier in the year entered an agreement with the Ministry of Defence to set up a training centre on how to handle equipment for the repair work on the Scorpene-class submarines.