India’s first private sector missile sub-systems manufacturing facility, a joint venture between the $2.5 billion Kalyani Group and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd., was inaugurated near Hyderabad on Thursday.
To begin with, the Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems (KRAS) plant will make anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) Spike and the production is expected to begin in a few weeks, Kalyani Group chairman Baba N. Kalyani said. Besides supplying to the Indian Army, the plan is to export to South East Asian countries, he added.
Advanced equipment
Formed in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Centre and the policy to encourage private sector participation in defence production, the 51:49 joint venture will develop a wide range of advanced capabilities.
These include command control and guidance, electro-optics, remote weapon systems, precision guided munitions and system engineering for system integration. The plant would employ more than 300 engineers and provide indirect employment to 1,000 people.
Addressing the media ahead of the inauguration, Mr. Kalyani said Rs. 60-70 crore had been invested in the plant.
Going forward, once orders start flowing, “we will invest more… also looking to [make] other products, he said, adding that Spice glider bombs used by the Air Force would be the next.
On the plant’s ATGM capacity, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems president and CEO Maj. Gen. (retired) Yoav Har-Even said: “We are speaking in thousands of the air-to-surface missiles.”
— source thehindu.com 2017-08-04
when weapon manufacturing becomes privatized, more conflicts and war will occur. Mothers and sisters please send your sons and husbands to army to make foreign capitalist profitable.