Tatas to combine aerospace and defence businesses

Tata Sons said consolidation of the aerospace and defence sector businesses will help it to provide unified offerings for both 'Make In India’ and exports by being partner of choice for global OEMs.

“Tata A&D proposes to leverage its full range of expertise, experience, and capabilities from across the group related to land mobility solutions, aerospace, weapon systems, sensors and command, control, communication, computers and intelligence,” Tata Sons stated in a release.

Some of the companies that are proposed to be forming part of Tata A&D already have strong, established partnerships with leading aerospace and defence firms and are part of the global supply chain, the group said, adding that in some instances, they are also global single source providers.

Tata A&D said it would remain deeply invested in the development of indigenous platforms that are uniquely suited for the Indian defence forces, which is central to its long-term strategy.

Besides the various joint ventures and collaborations with leading global equipment manufacturers, Tata A&D proposes to bring together over 6,000 employees across its various facilities and set up new production facilities in states like Telangana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra.

“The formation of Tata A&D, a single unified entity, will allow us to better target emerging opportunities in aerospace and defence, and engage holistically with customers both in India and globally,” N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, said.

“Tata A&D when formed, will be better equipped to execute larger and more complex projects and be more globally competitive as part of the global supply chain. We have moved beyond providing individual products to develop integrated offerings across land mobility, airborne platforms and systems, as well as weapons systems and command and control (C4I) platforms,” Banmali Agrawala, president, infrastructure and defence and aerospace, Tata Sons, said.

“Tata has already built an industrial base in defence designed to complement and integrate with the efforts of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and defence public sector units (PSU),” he added.

The combined entity will offer the full range of integrated mobility and support solutions across land, sea and air.

These would include multi-axle combat support vehicles, light armoured vehicles, light support vehicles, mine protected vehicles, light armoured multi-role combat vehicles, wheeled armoured amphibious platforms (WHAP) and tracked amphibious platforms like the futuristic infantry combat vehicle (FICV) and future ready combat vehicle (FRCV).

It would also include unmanned systems, rotary platforms, fixed wing platforms, mission systems and avionics, as well as in-house indigenous development of mini and micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and in-house development of safety-critical airborne computer systems and related applications for both manned and unmanned platforms, radars, sonars, electro optics systems, electronics for land systems, homeland security sensors, comprehensive border management systems.

Moreover, this integrate design, development, and manufacture of command control and tactical communication systems, including for air defence and naval combat.

Post consolidation, Tata A&D will draw synergies from entities across the group, including Tata Motors’ Defence Division, TAL Manufacturing Solutions Limited (subsidiary of Tata Motors), Tata Power’s Strategic Engineering Division, Tata Advanced Materials Limited, and Tata Advanced Systems Limited.