In a boost for the domestic defence manufacturing sector and the government's Make in India push, the State-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has signed a teaming agreement with UK-based Thales to work in partnership on the STARStreak air defence system, reports Hindu Businessline.
As a result of the teaming agreement, BDL has become a part of the STARStreak's global supply chain. In addition to this, BDL also gets the opportunity to export the air defence system to existing and future customers which include the UK's Armed Forces.
The agreement also allows BDL to offer the air defence system to the Indian Armed Forces with a minimum of 60 per cent indigenous content along with domestic designing and development. This would qualify it under the Make in India programme.
Sharing details of the development, BDL's chairman and managing director Commodore Siddharth Mishra (Retd) said, "The partnership between Thales and BDL with Transfer of Technology for STARStreak, will create a new business opportunity for BDL and its supply chain partners in India. BDL will be able to enhance its footprint in the export and domestic markets with this new business opportunity."