Foreign OEMs are transforming from exporters to partners

The green shoots that emerged from the seeds of self-reliance are now visible to all. The evidence of India's self-reliant path forward is the increasing number of companies that once sold to India and are now looking at Indian companies as partners. This was made very clear when some of the world's leading defense contractors argued India's case before a packed room comprising the who's who of India's strategic affairs community who gathered in New Delhi to attend the Indian Defense Conclave , which was recently hosted by BharatShakti.

As India ensures that more and more of its equipment, both for itself and for the world, is made in India, foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are investing in India. These companies are now looking at India not just as a market but also as a manufacturing and design location. Both foreign and Indian companies are also investing in creating an ecosystem that will help the country realize its ambitions.

Q – OEMs operating in India are impressed with India’s manufacturing output and the ecosystem built around defense and other industries. Laurent Videau of the French Naval Group says: “Submarine construction is probably the most complex and difficult piece of equipment to build. To give you an example, building a fighter jet will take tens of thousands of hours. A submarine will take millions of hours. The fact that Mazagon managed to build these submarines all by itself in just a few years is a testament to the strength of the technology.”

Kiran Dambala from Lockheed Martin also praised the country's manufacturing expertise. Dambala said, “Imagine starting from 100% imported suppliers for the tailplanes to 96% indigenization happening here in India for a large complex aircraft structure that is the tail of the C-130j aircraft.” Fast forward back to 2020 when we were trying to get the prototype through Covid. Indian industry has made great strides in key segments of defense production in the last decade. It has absorbed technology, increased investment in defense research and development, and moved to produce a growing list of world-class systems and platforms. The government's policy changes have provided the right boost. The momentum needs to be further accelerated with increasing participation of F-OEMs in a win-win model with the Indian defense industry.

Dhruv Yadav