Bharat Forge expanding its horizons

AMSTAF - UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLE

Bharat Forge, the flagship company of the Kalyani Group, is making an invasion into the Indian defence and homeland security market with a range of products from guns, armoured vehicles, advanced control system and signal processing platform, etc. The company has tied up with many Indian and international companies to manufacture the products in India.

Speaking to SP’s ShowNews, Rajinder Singh Bhatia, Executive Vice President, CEO, Defence and Aerospace said the company instead of waiting for customers and orders has begun manufacturing the products first. “Besides the tie-ups with various companies, Bharat Forge has already acquired a full plant Ruag Defence in Switzerland. The factory will be relocated to Pune in another two months.”

The company is manufacturing a 105mm howitzer gun, the first prototype of which will be ready in two months and working on ‘Project Sunrise’ which is likely to be completed by 2015. “While the software and navigation products are being brought from outside, the hardware is completely made in India,” said Bhatia. He further informed that the company is in talks with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for more than one and a half years now.

At Defexpo, Bharat Forge displayed prototypes of a range of its products some of which are in the design and some in the production stage. The products included light armoured vehicle; light strike vehicle suited for surveillance, base patrol rapid offensive actions; light-weight state-of-the-art unmanned ground vehicle with all terrain manoeuvrability; perimeter security electromagnetic fences; millimetre wave imaging system; advanced control system and signal processing platform for defence, etc. The company has tied up with the Automotive Robotic Industry Ltd to manufacture AMSTAF unmanned ground vehicle. “We signed the contract with Bharat Forge a year back and we are now looking for customers. The manufacturing process will start depending on the volume of the customers, said Amos Goren, Founder & CEO, Automotive Robotic Industry.