Murugappa group’s CUMI bets Rs 40 crore on defence, taps veterans to widen armour play

CHENNAI: Carborundum Universal Ltd (CUMI) which has invested about Rs 40 crore in its defence manufacturing facility in Hosur over the past two years, is tapping retired armed forces personnel to gain entry into defence establishments, as the Murugappa Group company seeks to widen the use of ceramic armour to airports and critical infrastructure.

The material science company is working with about five retired Navy and Air Force personnel and two to three experts with DRDO experience to reach defence depots, identify protection gaps and develop new applications.

“We are leveraging their expertise to make inroads into a lot of these depots,” said Subbu Venkatachalam, head, defence & aerospace, CUMI. “They’ve lived this day in and day out and know the weak areas where protection can be enhanced.”

CUMI’s push marks a shift from the defence industry’s traditional focus on mobility armour (protecting tanks, trucks, helicopters and aircraft) to stationary protection. “Any defence-oriented person will always say mobility first and stationary second,” Venkatachalam said. But drone warfare and attacks on strategic assets have altered the risk equation. India also has airports such as Pune and Chandigarh that house military aircraft alongside civilian aviation infrastructure, making aircraft shelters, runways and other installations increasingly critical.

“Low-flying drones are what people are using now,” he said. “Even six kg or eight kg blasts can do enough damage to make equipment non-functional,” including aircraft, fuel storage, radar and surveillance systems. Conventional stationary protection, ranging from sandbags to steel barricades, has limitations.

“Pistols, maybe some semi-automated rifles, it can take. But anything above that (automatic machine guns, cannon fire, blasts) is very difficult. It just cannot do that job,” Venkatachalam said.

CUMI is pitching ceramic protection for aircraft shelters and blast pens and has spoken to three to four depots in Chandigarh. The company is yet to secure a stationary armour order. The science behind ceramic armour is its ability to take a high-energy impact and dissipate it. “Ceramic is very difficult as it is very brittle but also very strong,” he said.

“It should take on that kinetic energy, absorb it and dissipate it.”

CUMI has already developed ceramic solutions for side-panel and underbelly protection of combat vehicles against certain threat levels involving 6-10 kg IED blasts.

The company now wants to adapt the same principle to stationary structures. “The ceramic will break, but the aircraft doesn’t get damaged,” Venkatachalam explained.

“Can we take that science and flip it for the overarching layer on top of an aircraft?”

Depending on the material and threat level, ceramic systems can also withstand AK-47 fire, while high-end materials such as boron carbide are being explored for threats including cannon fire.

Ceramic composites can reduce armour weight by 20-30 per cent, and in some applications by up to 40 per cent. CUMI is also proposing add-on ceramic layers for existing barricades and aircraft shelters. “Don’t change anything. Just let me add ceramic into it,” he said.

The company expects stationary armour market development to take two to three years. “We are creating a market for ourselves,” Venkatachalam said.