Thales Inks Pact With Adani Defence To Manufacture 70mm Rockets In India

Adani Defence & Aerospace has signed an agreement with Thales Group to manufacture 70mm rockets locally. This strategic collaboration aligns with the Indian government’s “Make in India” initiative, aiming to enhance self-reliance in defence production.

Adani’s Defence & Aerospace?

Earlier this month, Adani Defence and Aerospace signed a landmark agreement with EDGE Group – one of the world’s leading advanced technology and defence groups in the UAE. The Drishti-10 Starliner is an Indian medium-altitude long-endurance UAV based on the Israeli Elbit Hermes 900, manufactured by Adani Defence and Aerospace for the Indian Armed Forces. The UAV reportedly has an indigenous content of over 70%.

Aim

The agreement aims to establish a global platform leveraging the defence and aerospace capabilities of both companies to bring together their respective product portfolios and cater to the requirements of global and local customers.

About Thales Group

Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris’ business district, La Defence, and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.

India’s LCH Prachand

India operates the HAL Rudra – attack variant of the Dhruv chopper, Light Combat Helicopter Prachand, the Apache AH-64 and the Mi-35 choppers in its attack fleet. In 2022, the indigenously built LCH Prachand were inducted into the Air Force. Prachand can perform a range of roles including combat search and rescue destruction of enemy air defence and counter-insurgency (CI) operations. The 70mm unguided rockets from Thales have been successfully integrated and deployed in the current fleet of ALH and LCH. These rockets have been combat proven across the world and Indian Armed forces have been supplied with sizeable quantum of same under global buy in the past.

Requirement of these rockets

The requirement of 70mm rockets, similar to ammunition, is recurring and will be the main stay of India’s combat capabilities for rotary wing assets. These rockets shall be integrated in ALH(WSI) and LCH class of helicopters as well. The 70 mm unguided rockets are based on launchers each fitted on either side of the helicopter and deploying a total of seven, 12 and 19 tube configurations ready-to-fire rockets.