Thales, BEL to form Joint Venture Company for Radars

The French aerospace company Thales and India’s Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) have announced a joint venture to produce civil and military applications radars.

According to a press statement issued by the two companies Aug 29, the two companies have taken this decision as a follow-up to the bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 17 Nov 2009 to set up a Joint Venture Company (JVC) to manufacture radars for India and foreign markets.

The JVC will be “dedicated to the design, development, marketing, supply and support of civilian and select defence radars for Indian and export customers.” Thales will have 26 per cent share as allowed by the Indian foreign investment rules and BEL 74 percent.

The governing boards of both the companies have approved the formation, and procedural paperwork would now be submitted to the governments of India and France for approval. “The parent companies aim at making the Joint Venture Company a centre of excellence with the ability to offer solutions specifically aimed at meeting the needs of both Indian and export customers,” the statement said.

Notably, the state-run BEL has become the prime Indian company for producing electronic warfare and civil application systems, and a majority of contracts under the offsets and technology transfer programmes are likely to go to it.

And Thales is a big, French and global technology leader for Defence, Security, Aerospace and Transport sectors.

Significantly, most of the electronic warfare systems, radars and weapons on board the Dassault Rafale aircraft are made by Thales. The AESA combat radar, a key requirement in the Indian MMRCA (Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft) tender, has also been developed and demonstrated by Thales for this aircraft.

Rafale cleared the technical trials along with the European consortium’s Eurofighter but became the lowest bidder in financial terms. Discussions are on between Dassault, the aircraft manufacturer, and the Indian Ministry of Defence to settle the 50 percent offset package and the required ToT. Once the blanks have been filled in, the contract is likely to be signed, possibly by year end.

Thales should derive some offsets benefits from its tieups with BEL, and other Indian companies, public or private sector.

Thales generated revenues of €13 billion (equivalent of $18.2 billion) last year. It has 67,000 employees in more than 56 countries, 22,500 engineers and researchers.

BEL offers products and services in Radars, Military Communications, Naval Systems, Electronic Warfare Systems, C4I Systems, Telecommunications, Sound and Vision Broadcasting, Opto-Electronics, Tank Electronics, Solar Photovoltaic Systems, Embedded Software and Electronic Components.

BEL is playing an important role in setting up secure communications for the Indian armed forces.

(By: India Strategic)