India’s first private Unmanned Aerial Vehicles factory comes up in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: The country’s first private sector unit for manufacturing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was opened at Adani Aerospace Park near Shamshabad on Friday.Built by the Adani Group and Israel-based Elbit Systems, the facility will develop Hermes 900 medium altitude long-endurance UAVs for the Indian and global markets.
Home Minister Md Mahmood Ali inaugurated the facility that is all set to start operations in manufacturing of complete carbon composite aerostructures for Hermes 900, followed by Hermes 450 UAVs catering to the global markets.
Head of Adani Defence and Aerospace, Ashish Rajvanshi said the private partnership will soon start exporting the acclaimed technological machines to meet the needs of modern warfare. “The facility would be further ravamped to meet the growing needs for assembly and integration of complete UAVs,” he said.
However, the country will not be able to avail this to its own use in the Indian agencies as it is not permitted, at present. “Once the provision is open, we will supply to Indian agencies, but now will start exporting to global markets. We don’t want to wait till India finalises its order for procuring 150 UAVs,” Rajvanshi said. Pumping an investment of $15 million into the facility, the production is slated to begin from March 2019.
President and Chief Executive Officer of Elbit Systems Bezhalel Machilis said, “This facility will manufacture the most advanced UAV systems in the world.”The Gujarat-based industrial house has set up facilities for defence and aerospace sector in two locations, one in Mundra ( in Gujarat), where it earmarked 100 acres and another one in Hyderabad, he said.