Mahindra Defence, part of Mahindra and Mahindra Group, on Wednesday inked two MoUs to strengthen it defence footprint through partnerships.
As part of DefExpo 2018, the company has signed an MoU with Japan-based ShinMaywa Industries to manufacture and supply sea planes to Indian Navy. It signed another MoU with Aeronautics of Israel to partner for Naval Shipborne Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
Aeronautics and Mahindra will offer a UAV system, which can be launched and recovered from Indian warships. Aeronautics, a leading manufacturer of UAVs, is an Israeli public-listed company, and is a key player in the defence domain. Aeronautics is the OEM of Orbiter series of UAVs which were sold in many countries, globally.
As part of the MoU with the Japanese firm, both the companies will set up MRO services/ manufacturing and assembling of structural parts and components for US-2 amphibian aircraft based on the order flow, said SP Shukla, group president, aerospace & defence sector, Mahindra Group, and chairman of Mahindra Defence.
ShinMaywa US-2 aircraft, which claims to be the only ‘in service’ open sea capable amphibian aircraft with state-of-the-art technology, very rough sea operations (Sea state 5 up to 3m wave height), riverine/lake landing capability, STOL features, long endurance and extended radius of operations with large payload capacity.
US-2 may be considered as an effective platform to carry out ‘Benign’ missions such as SAR,CASEVAC, humanitarian relief and disaster management, and ‘Constabulary’ missions such as extended EEZ surveillance, maritime domain awareness (MDA) missions of the Indian Navy, said the company.
The ShinMaywa US-2 fleet is deployed by Japanese Maritime Self Defence Forces across their remote islands chain for Exclusive Economic Zones protection, surveillance and search and rescue operations.
India and Japan are now discussing the methodology of procurement of Amphibian Aircraft US-2 requirements of the Indian Navy.
