India to soon be home to largest artillery manufacturing facility of world

New Delhi, Oct 19 (KNN) The Kalyani group chairman Baba Kalyani on Tuesday said that the group is in process to set up world’s largest artillery manufacturing facility in India.

While addressing the DefExpo 2022 at Gandhinagar, Kalyani said that in three years’ time, the group will start producing one gun per day.

Currently it produces about six guns in 30 days at present. “The capital investment has already been done. Now we need to increase the volumes,” he said.

Stating that the group has the technology to produce lighter guns with the same fire power as a heavy ones, Kalyani stated that the trend for ‘shoot-and-scoot’ guns is growing globally.

“In future Indian armed forces may go for lighter guns such as mounted guns etc. And we have the technology that nobody else has today,” he added.

During the ongoing DefExpo, Bharat Forge Limited announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with General Atomics, US, to collaborate on a Lithium-Ion Battery System for naval platforms/submarines to address the requirements of the Indian Navy.

Under this agreement, Bharat Forge and General Atomics’ Electromagnetic Systems Group (GA-EMS) will partner with each other in the area of permanent magnet motors.

“We have been relentlessly working towards bringing niche technologies in the country with the aim of making Indian self-reliant in defence verticals. GA is a market leader for in-service Li-Ion Battery solutions for naval platforms/submarines and our partnership with General Atomics is a firm step in the direction to develop Make in India solutions for Indian Navy and setting up a strong defence technology and manufacturing vertical within India,” Kalyani stated.

Commenting on the signing of the MoU, Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS, said, “Our Li-Ion battery system has been developed after 10 years of rigorous R&D. Instead of the usual ‘fault prevention’, our design philosophy is based on assuming a fault and requiring fault containment’, which has made our system extremely safe and reliable.”

The DefExpo 2022 will conclude on October 22, 2022.  (KNN Bureau)