With an aim to achieve an edge over its competitors, Cassidian, the defence and security division of European Aeronautic Defence & Space (EADS), has set up an engineering centre for its military aircraft, defence avionics and homeland security systems in Bangalore to develop products for the Indian market.
EADS already has an Airbus R&D and engineering centre for its civilian aircraft in the city that has been operational for around a year now.
While several companies have been off-shoring engineering work in difference disciplines to India, this is first instance of a foreign company opening its defence-oriented engineering centre in the country.
Stefan Zoller, CEO of Cassidian, said the move had been driven by the growing potential of India’s defence market and its emerging aerospace manufacturing ecosystem.
“The engineering centre goes to show our commitment to increase our industrial footprint in this rapidly growing country. It makes complete sense for a nation to develop its own product and export it,” he said.
The centre will be staffed largely by Indian engineers, Zoller said, adding that the company would raise the number of employees at the facility to 200 by the end of 2012 from the current 60.
The centre will work on purely defence technology for the Indian and global markets. The engineering centre will develop its core competencies in the areas of radar systems, protection systems, avionic systems, engineering IT & 3D visual simulation, aero-structure and aerospace modelling and simulation.
Meanwhile, Cassidian and Larsen and Toubro will kick-start a joint venture (JV) in defence electronics in the next two days. The deal initially faced some problems because of the central government’s rule of 26% cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) into defence sector.
Cassidian had earlier been hesitant about coming in as a minority partner in the venture.
“There are some limitations. We respect the government rules and so are abiding by it, we have a 26% share in the JV,” said Zoller.
