BENGALURU: MBDA, Europe’s largest missile and missile systems company, plans to roll out the fifth generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) jointly with an Indian partner, under the IDDM or indigenously designed, developed and manufactured scheme, said Loïc Piedevache, MBDA’s Country Head, India.
ATGM5, as the missile is known, will be displayed at Aero India 2017 along with MBDA’s extensive range of weapons for Rafale, as well as for Mirage 2000 and Jaguar upgrade programmes.
“Drawing on and further developing technologies that we have been working on for the French Army, this most advanced of ATGM capabilities will meet specific Indian operational requirements. The ATGM5 project represents an important cornerstone of our Indian partnership strategy,” Loïc Piedevache, told Deccan Chronicle.
In addition, MBDA, which has entered the race for supply of very short range air defence systems (VSHORAD), will transfer the technology for manufacture of Mistral missile by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL), once the ministry of defence takes a decision on this missile.
“Mistral is very easy to use, it’s fire-and-forget which adds an important advantage when dealing with numerous, simultaneous very short range incoming threats and significantly, there is an important industrial element to the MBDA offer,” he added.
He said, “We are focusing on two key messages at this very high profile international show – how MBDA will be providing the very best weapons to ensure optimum operational capability for the IAF’s fleet, and how the Company is advancing its network of industrial partners within the Indian defence industry sector. We are actively enlarging our network of Indian industrial partners, particularly in the private SMEs and MSMEs sectors which are home of some very dynamic companies with the highly advanced technical skills that complex defence projects require. We are already working very closely with HAL on arming the Rudra and Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) with MBDA’s Mistral air-to-air missile system. Integration of the ATAM launcher on Rudra has been successfully completed and has now started on the LCH.”
Loïc Piedevache said, “Going beyond MBDA products, the most interesting take-away (from Aero India 2017) for MBDA lies on the industrial partnership front and the next few years look like being very interesting indeed as we continue to grow our network of business partners throughout the continent. The company’s strategy for the next five years and beyond is to show its true commitment to working with India to make ‘Make in India’ a success,” he added.
