Airbus, Mahindra JV to make helicopters

A first private Indian helicopter manufacturer under the 'Make in India' initiative The venture would create hundreds of high-tech jobs locally and lead to a flow of cutting edge technologies to India. It would produce helicopters to meet the country's military requirements

New Delhi: European major Airbus has teamed up with diversified Mahindra Group to establish a joint venture for manufacturing helicopters for the Indian Armed Forces. The joint venture between Airbus Helicopters and Mahindra Defence aims to become the "first private Indian helicopter manufacturer under the 'Make in India' initiative," the companies said. To be set up in the coming months, the venture would produce helicopters to meet the country's military requirements.

"Both companies will now get into discussions to finalise the formation of the joint venture which will act as the prime contractor for India's military helicopter tenders including the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Helicopter, the Naval Utility Helicopter and the Naval Multirole Helicopter procurement programmes," the firms said in a statement. According to the statement, the venture would create hundreds of high-tech jobs locally and lead to a flow of cutting edge technologies to India.

Guillaume Faury, who is Airbus Helicopters President & CEO, said the joint venture would be dedicated to supplying the Indian Armed Forces with Made-in-India, state of the art helicopters of high reliability, quality and safety standard based on combat-proven platforms. "We are convinced that with Mahindra we will not only have a mutually rewarding association but one which will offer immense benefits to India," Faury noted.

S P Shukla, Mahindra's Group President (Aerospace and Defence Sector) and Chairman, Mahindra Defence Systems, said the joint venture would produce "India's next generation helicopters that will not only answer our country's defence needs but will also have the potential for exports in the future." Mahindra Defence is a Mahindra Group subsidiary and Airbus Helicopters is a division of Airbus Group.