Lockheed Martin, BEL to explore opportunities in F-21 project

LUCKNOW: Lockheed Martin and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the DefExpo 2020 to explore industrial opportunities

LUCKNOW: Lockheed Martin and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the DefExpo 2020 to explore industrial opportunities in the F-21 programme.

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“We are excited to begin exploring F-21 opportunities with BEL, one of India’s leading aerospace and defence companies,” said Vivek Lall, vice-president of strategy and business development, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.

“We are happy to collaborate with Lockheed Martin, which is a global major in the aerospace sector. We are eagerly looking forward to cash in on this co-operation to address domestic and international market needs in this sector,” said Anandi Ramalingam, director (marketing), BEL.

The advanced, single-engine F-21 is the ideal solution to meet the Indian Air Force’s capability needs and deliver unparalleled industrial opportunities.

Production of anti-tank missile system

The Javelin Joint Venture, a partnership of Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin, signed an MoU with Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) to explore co-production of the Javelin anti-tank missile system to fulfill potential future requirements of India’s ministry of defence.

“We look forward to working with BDL, a leading guided weapon system manufacturer, to evaluate the possibility of manufacturing Javelin in India,” said David Pantano, Javelin Joint Venture vice-president. Commodore Siddharth Mishra (retd), CMD, Bharat Dynamics Limited said BDL’s thrust in the coming years would be to continue to invest in infrastructure, automate its production lines, adopt continual process improvement and exports.

ELFIE Night Vision Device

Thales and MKU on Friday announced co-development of the ELFIE Night Vision Device (NVD) for the armed forces in India and across the world on the sidelines of DefExpo 2020. With this, both companies have further solidified the MoU signed in 2018 for strategic co-operation on developing optronic devices. This co-operation involves co-development of these devices at MKU’s facility in Kanpur.

HAL’s Light Utility Helicopter

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has received the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) for its Light Utility Helicopter (LUH). R Madhavan, CMD, HAL received the IOC document from G Sateesh Reddy, secretary, department of defence R and D and chairman, DRDO at the ‘Bandhan’ programme held at DefExpo 2020 on Friday.

Aircraft under UDAN scheme

HAL signed a ‘lease agreement’ with Turbo Aviation Private Ltd for operating two Do-228 aircraft under the UDAN scheme. TAPL would operate two Do-228 aircraft manufactured by HAL. The agreement was signed by Apurba Roy, general manager of HAL’s TAD Kanpur and V Umesh, MD, TAPL.

TAPL would acquire two aircraft from HAL and would be operating from Lucknow. The first aircraft will connect Lucknow from Shravasti, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Jhansi and Saharanpur. The second aircraft will operate from Lucknow to Hindon, Faizabad, Mirpur, Chitrakoot and Kushinagar.

PACT WITH IIT-K: HAL signed an MoU with IIT-Kanpur for providing Do-228 or HS 748 aircraft towards extending logistic support to the institution’s projects in the field of ‘cloud seeding’. The MoU was signed between Apurba Roy, general manager of HAL’s TAD Kanpur and Manindra Agrawal, deputy director, IIT Kanpur.