To give a filip to defence and homeland security forces combating terrorism, the $900-million diversified Jubilant Bhartia Group is set to manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the country.

The group has set up Jubilant Aeronautics (JAPL), in which Israel’s Aeronautics is set to pick up a 26% stake for an undisclosed amount, sources said. Aeronautics’, Israel’s leading defence corporations and the second largest unmanned systems provider in the world, clients include Israeli military, US Navy, government and private clients in USA, Canada, Greece, Poland, Angola among other countries.

According to top government sources, Aeronautics will pick up a 26% stake in JAPL, which has been set up in Bangalore, to manufacture UAVs to address the pressing needs in both defence and civil areas.

The proposed JV will also look at the integration, maintenance, repair and overhaul of UAVs for both civil and defence applications. According to sources, JAPL has applied to the foreign investment promotion board seeking its nod to the equity investment by Israel’s Aeronautics. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), also known as a remotely piloted vehicle, flies without a human crew on board. Their largest uses are in military applications. UAVs typically fall into one of six functional categories including target and decoy providing ground and aerial gunnery a target that simulates an enemy aircraft or missile, reconnaissance, combat, logistics, research and development and civil and commercial UAVs.

While the exact cost of a UAV is not known, industry experts say that a basic UAV for civil use comes at $25,000-$30,000 or around Rs 12 lakh. However, advanced UAVs required for defence purposes may cost over Rs 2-5 crore. This is first major move by Jubilant group into defence production, informed sources told FE. So far, India has not made any significant progress in developing its own UAVs. Country’s Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is said to be developing some advanced UAVs for the Indian Air Force.

With this joint venture, India will soon get its own versions of UAV or drones used successfully by the US forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to demolish terrorist networks. Also, the UAVs manufactured under this joint venture will also be used in monitoring of oil and gas pipelines, aerial photography, weather forecasting, crop harvesting, pollution and traffic monitoring among others.

For Jubilant, this will be yet another venture for a group that has a significance position in diversified areas of business including pharma, life sciences, specialty chemicals (Jubilant Organosys), oil and gas exploration and production (Jubilant Energy), transportation – air and ground (Jubilant Enpro), fast food retail (Domino’s pizza through Jubilant Food Works) and financial advisory and IT services among others.