Reliance Infra-led Reliance Defence Ltd has signed a strategic partnership agreement with 3 Ukrainian state firms to collaborate on a range of military products.
These three Ukrainian state-owned firms are Ukroboronprom, Spetstechno Exports and Antonov.
Key facts
- The strategic collaboration will be for range of military products including transport aircraft, armoured vehicles, maritime gas turbines and unmanned aerial vehicles.
- Under the agreement with Antonov, both companies will jointly bid for the medium military transport aircraft programme of the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
- In addition they will also collaborate for assembly, manufacture and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of Antonov series of aircraft.
- This collaboration will mainly address the requirements of the Indian market and also the agreed global markets.
- Cooperation between Reliance Defence and Spetstechno Exports will focus on upgrade programs for the BMP 2 and Armoured Vehicles, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Marine Gas Turbines for the Indian Navy Frigate program in India.
Reliance Defence is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure led by Anil Ambani. Antonov is globally known as the manufacturer of the largest transport aircraft in the world.
Currently, the Indian Air Force (IAF) operates more than 100 AN-32 aircraft, which forms the backbone of its transport fleet.