Thales and Samtel in avionics JV

New Delhi: French defence and aerospace major Thales has said its joint venture with Indian electronic giant Samtel will enable the country to become part of a global supply chain for civil and military avionics. The venture, named Samtel Thales Avionics, will have an equity participation of 74:26 by Samtel and Thales.

'We will design and manufacture global products to make the joint venture a part of the global supply chain,' Pierre-Eric Pommellet, senior vice-president of Thales' aerospace division, informed the media. 'We are here to be an Indian company to develop global products. We develop in the countries we operate in,' he maintained of the new venture.

The joint venture was announced in May this year with a capital outlay of $12.5 million with the understanding that more investments would be pumped in as the JV continues to develop and progress.

Thales officials are in talks with Samtel officials on the manner in which the joint venture is playing out.

Pommellet pointed to Thales experience with Germany's Diehl Aerospace to show how successful such joint ventures can be. 'When we started out, our annual revenues were 50 million euros. Within 10 years, this had risen to 600 million euros. So, you can see how much scope there is,' he said.

The JV will initially focus on CRT (cathode ray tubes) for Airbus civil and military aircraft, as also on helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) and multi-functional displays (MFDs) for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Samtel director Puneet Kaura was confident the JV would deliver what was expected of it. 'We are in the process of starting pre-production and should begin production in the next quarter (Jan-March, 2009),' he said.

'We will also move from manufacturing displays to avionics systems that are much more complicated as this involves working with integrated avionics architecture,' Kaura said.

Samtel and Thales are also working closely for the supply of advanced helmets to the Indian Navy for the MiG 29K combat aircraft that will be deployed on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya likely to be inducted in 2012.

Samtel is also working in close association with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for developing an LCD-based head-down display for the IAF's frontline Sukhoi SU-30MKI combat jets.

Samtel also has a joint venture with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for developing avionics for the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) and the intermediate jet trainer (IJT).

According to Kaura, the Samtel-Thales joint venture has submitted a proposal to the defence ministry for fulfilling its 30 per cent offsets or reinvestment obligations in its bid to update the avionics systems of the IAF's 51-strong fleet of Mirage 2000 bombers.

About the Mirage upgrades, Quentin said this would enable the IAF address the alarming dip in its operational capabilities. 'The upgrade will significantly enhance the IAF's air potential by extending the operational performance of the Mirage fleet and taking full advantage of the aircraft's world class capabilities,' he said.