Tag Archives: Indian Aerospace SME

Aero India 2015

Indian SMEs set to battle it out for Rs 18,000 crore defence pie

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A $3 Billion opportunity for Indian SMEs and Defence MSMEs has been created by Defence Procurement Policy 2013 and the Make In India Campaign. Numerous offsets in the three wings of the armed forces are expected to be executed in the next five years.

According to defence MSMEs, the two key initiatives have opened up an estimated Rs. 90,000 crore business opportunity, identified as the offset opportunity for defence players in public sector undertakings (DPSUs) and also for the MSME sector over the coming five-year period.  It is reported that prospective business worth Rs.72,000 crores has emerged from IAF (Indian Air Force), with the Indian Navy presenting another Rs.13,500 crore possibility. The prospect from the Indian Army would be around Rs.4500 crore. In the last few years the total value of defence offsets contracted in the last few years is valued around Rs.28,800 crore. The Indian Air Force has signed contracts worth approximately Rs.21,600 crore, the Indian Navy worth Rs.5,064 crore and the Indian Army Rs.144 crore.The MSME sector could expect business worth of Rs.18,000 crores, which would be 20 percent of the Defence sector’s overall projection.

The most promsing area that should encourage SMEs in the defence segment is the indigenous manufacture of parts and
sub-assemblies to replace obsolete original equipment (the MRO sector). It includes the design, development and manufacture of complete equipment as a replacements. Serious efforts have to be made to attract SMEs into this obsolescence management sector. In turn, SMEs should rise to this occasion by raising their standards of quality and reliability of  parts and assemblies that are manufactured by them, as supplies to larger players. Large organisations can then outsource in parallel to multiple efficiently managed MSME organizations.

This kind of involvement will certainly reduce the cost and the time of execution of projects, which are chronically plagued by delays today.

GRajNarayan

Your Stamp in the Sky

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Extract from an article that was published in the New Indian Express:

The Narendra Modi government recently allowed private players based in India to manufacture equipment for the Indian Air Force. In July this year, the Defence Ministry approved the construction of 56 transport aircraft by private players. This is the first time that the private sector will design and manufacture aircraft and will not be supported by the government enterprise, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

There has been some shift since the new government is encouraging participation of the private sector. It was not a dynamic environment before, but now we can expect some change and emergence of indigenous technology in the industries.

This has ignited interest in courses on aerospace.

Demand for the course

In India, you can do a course in Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering. BE/ME, BTech/MTech and PhD-level courses are available in the country. Aerospace engineers are required to have both theoretical and practical knowledge. So, most of these programmes will focus on maintenance systems, production planning and control, airframe instruments and industrial management.

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“Studying the subject is very interesting as it has practical applications and is challenging compared to computer science or electronics engineering,” says Lynden Martin Gomez, an aeronautical engineering student who graduated last year from KCG College of Technology, Chennai.

Tweet this: “Students get attracted by IT companies and take up jobs there while the passionate few go into core engineering industries” 

Career scope

Aerospace engineers are paid from Rs.15,000 to Rs.50,000 a month depending on the firm and their experience. You can become a general manager, aircraft design engineer or a technician. Some companies where you can seek jobs include Indian Space Research Organisation, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Hindustan Aeronautics and National Aeronautics Labs. While there are many job roles and companies that take in such engineers, “it was hard finding a job immediately after graduation,” says Lynden.

“Very few who come to us have hands-on capabilities. They seem to have pre-conceived ideas that seem dull. Students should be encouraged to innovate and design new equipment.”

 

The original article appeared in the  NewIndianExpress

Why doesn’t India have really good, indigenously built fighter jets ?

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A modern fighter aircraft is a very complex machine. It consists of a high performance aerodynamic airframe, constructed using a variety of modern materials such as aluminium and titanium alloys, carbon/glass fiber composites, etc., and a very high performance jet engine involving cutting edge technology and high precision machined parts. This only constitutes the basic flying platform, which is then equipped with a large variety of systems involving hydraulics, pneumatic, avionics, electrical and weapons related equipment to make it an efficient, sturdy, rugged, reliable, dependable, potent and safe machine. In fact,

“The quality of the systems and weapons fitted on a fighter aircraft is what really determines whether it is a “really good” or a mediocre aircraft”.

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An equipment indigenised by Radel that fires rockets from Jaguar aircraft

The design and development of a modern fighter aircraft needs a whole set of skills, capabilities, technologies and infrastructure extending over a very wide engineering spectrum. Further, due to the rapid advances in engineering technologies these days, such an industry would need to assimilate technologies as well as innovate their own continuously through R&D.

All these require highly qualified and trained engineers and scientists, who are encouraged and supported with the best of environment, infrastructure, financial backing and most importantly, quality leadership. Such an ecosystem has been sadly missing in this country all these years. With HAL being the exclusive PSU engaged in the development and manufacture of military aircraft for the last six decades, there has been very little opportunity for the private sector to get a foothold in this sector. One must also appreciate the fact that an aerospace industry is highly capital intensive with long gestation periods and hence no private sector organisation would have been able to afford the investments as made by the Govt. of India into HAL.

It is only in the last 15 years that large Indian business houses have evinced interest in foraying into aircraft manufacture. The synergy arising out of the joint participation of various aerospace organisations such as NAL, ADE, DRDO and HAL, by itself has resulted in a quantum jump resulting in the development of the LCA. This needs to be carried further with the active inclusion of the private sector, particularly in the areas of development of the airborne equipment falling under various categories.

What is required is a holistic and planned approach to developing the indigenous capability that synergises the strengths of the Govt. controlled aerospace organisations with the private sector companies that possess proven domain expertise in each of the engineering areas such as electronics, electrical, hydraulics, mechanical, pneumatic, and software engineering.