Kalyani Group hopes to become a powerhouse of artillery by 2030
Smruti Deshpande
Kalyani Group’s chairman, Baba Kalyani on Tuesday spoke about the conglomerate’s success in the field of designing and manufacturing of defence arms and expressed his ambitions of becoming a powerhouse of artillery by 2030.
“We’re the world’s largest forging company today and we have tremendous repository of knowledge in the area of material, metallurgical processes and we have brought that to the fore in terms of building our capabilities in the area of artillery. In a short span of six years, we have created six artillery platforms, four of them have been tested at the ranges of the Indian armed forces and they have performed extremely well,” said Kalyani.
Bharat Forge, Kalyani group’s flagship company in partnership with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has produced an artillery gun, Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), which has created a world record in terms of the distance that it can cover. It has the ability to fire 48 kms with conventional ammunition which puts the army personnel in an advantageous position.
For making the artillery lighter for easy transport, the Bharat Forge group has designed mountain range artillery guns that have been entirely designed and manufactured in Pune, where the company is based. Normal artillery guns weigh 15-16 tonnes. The group has developed artillery that weighs four-and-a half-tonnes and is currently producing a superlight artillery gun that will weigh 3.7 tonnes.
Production of armoured and armour protection vehicles and production of carbines are other areas that the company is working in.
Kalyani said that his company has been venturing in areas like digital and artificial intelligence, Internet of things (IoT), Nanotechnology, composites and embedded systems among others. Bharat Forge has also been funding a few defence start-ups.
He further said that his company hopes that the ministry of defence (MoD) introduces a policy wherein the Defence Production Policy becomes a mainstay of policy for manufacturing as people need to know what they need to make and also as it requires minimum six years of planning.
Things To Look Out For:
- Bharat Forge Limited to collaborate with General Atomics to develop new technologies for different requirements of the Indian Armed Forces.
- Bharat Forge Limited to collaborate with Paramount Group to form a JV in India to co-develop land systems and Aerospace platforms.
- Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited and Arsenal JSCo to form a strategic alliance to manufacture specific small arms in India.
- Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited and JSC Dastan to partner for joint upgradation of CET-65E torpedoes.
Bharat Forge Limited and BEML Limited are to collaborate efforts in developing mounted gun systems on 4×4 platform, manufacture and supply of power train aggregates among other projects.