DefExpo 2018: Tatas to consolidate its aerospace and defence portfolio to provide unified offering for defence forces

Tata Sons today said it is in the process of consolidating its various businesses across aerospace and defence sectors under a single entity – Tata Aerospace & Defence (Tata A&D).

“The necessary statutory and regulatory approvals are in the process of being obtained,” the Tata Sons said.

N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, said, “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.” The company said 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 . 

“Several companies 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. In some instances, they are also a global single source provider,” the company said.

It said Tata A&D will also be deeply invested in the development of indigenous platforms uniquely suited for the Indian defence forces, which is central to Tata A&D's long-term strategy.

“In addition to the growing list of joint ventures and collaborations with leading global equipment manufacturers, Tata A&D proposes to bring together over 6,000 employees, and have production facilities in the states of Telangana, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra,” the company said.

Banmali Agrawala, President, Infrastructure and Defence & Aerospace, 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.” He said, “We have moved beyond providing individual products to develop integrated offerings across Land mobility, airborne platforms and systems, as well as weapons systems and C4I. 

In India, Tata has built an industrial base in defence intentionally designed to complement and integrate with the efforts of the Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and Defence Public Sector Units (PSU).” The company said post the combination, the full range of integrated solutions by Tata A&D will 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 said the airborne platforms and systems of the company will 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.

“Subsequent to the 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,” the company said.