Bengaluru, February 12 (HS): The CEO round table held in the presence of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh at Aero India received an unprecedented response, with 116 global CEOs participating. Several foreign and Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) made announcements about their plans for investment, cooperation, setting up development centers and centers of excellence. Defense Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh met delegations from GE Aerospace and French company Safran in Bengaluru on Wednesday morning. The meetings focused on furthering aerospace cooperation, strengthening strategic partnerships and enhancing defense technology cooperation.
At the CEO round table, Ultra Maritime and Bharat Dynamics Limited announced the signing of preliminary contracts for co-production of US specifications. Bharat Forge announced plans to manufacture 100 percent landing gear for some commercial aircraft in the country itself. French company Safran and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) announced a partnership to co-produce Hammer missiles in India.
According to the Ministry of Defence, 58 foreign OEMs participated in the roundtable conference including John Cockerill (Belgium), Airbus (France), Ultra Maritime (USA), GNT (South Korea), Mitsubishi (Japan), Safran (France), Liebherr Aerospace (France), L3Harris Technologies Inc (USA), Thales (France), Lockheed Martin (USA), Martin Baker (UK). Indian OEMs included Bharat Forge Limited, Adani Defence and Aerospace, Mahindra Defence Systems Limited, Ashok Leyland Defence and Defence Public Sector Undertakings.
During the CEO meeting, the Defence Minister invited aviation companies from across the world to find targeted solutions and countermeasures to the challenges emerging due to the current volatile geopolitical scenario. The roundtable was held on the theme ‘Enabling Defence Cooperation through Global Engagement’, which was based on business-focused technology development, joint ventures, manufacturing excellence centres, industry-based capacity building, joint ventures, co-development and co-production and technology transfer.
The Defence Minister also inaugurated the ‘Defence Testing Portal’ and released a booklet on ‘Defence Testing Capabilities’ of Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA). This booklet will serve as a guiding document for defence manufacturers. During the conference, a short film was shown showcasing the remarkable development and progress of the Indian defence ecosystem, India’s aerospace, defence sector.
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
