Aerospace major EADS establishes R&D facility at Bangalore
By Vishnu Makhijani, IANSWednesday, February 17, 2010
NEW DELHI - Aiming to ramp up the capacities of India’s defence manufacturing industry, European aerospace major EADS has established a military R&D facility at Bangalore to take forward the group’s existing projects and work on new programmes.
“We have just started. Within two years, we hope to employ 200 engineers at the centre. If you consider that we employ 2,000 R&D engineers, this means that within two years, 10 percent of our R&D work will be conducted at Bangalore,” Bernhard Gerwert, CEO (Military Air Systems) of EADS Defence and Security, said.
“We are working with Indian industry for developing its skills. This is because it is important for us to show our commitment to India,” Gerwert, who is here for the biannual DefExpo land and naval systems exhibition, told IANS in an interview.
The centre is independent of the Eurofighter Typhoon, which the group produces and which is one of the six combat jets contending for an Indian Air Force (IAF) order for 126 aircraft, he added.
“The impact (of the R&D centre) for India is tremendous. The Eurofighter is just going into operation. There will be further enhancements for the next 20-30 years. Automatically, the Indian industry will be part of the programme,” Gerwert noted.
In this context, he pointed out that the Eurofighter programme was supported by 400 main supplies and collectively employed 100,000 people.
“This is the largest defence programme in Europe and through the R&D centre, Indian industry will become part of the family,” Gerwert added.
“India will also be a partner for future systems developed and produced in India for the entire Eurofighter family,” he said.
According to Gerwert, EADS’ intention to involve Indian industry in defence related business “goes beyond our offset obligations”.
Should the IAF select the Eurofighter, 50 percent of the $12 billion deal would have to be reinvested in India’s defence manufacturing sector.
“We have already signed 25 MoUs with Indian suppliers for sourcing parts for the Eurofighter. We will build on this through the new centre,” Gerwert said.
The new centre comes close on the heels of the Research and Technology Branch that EADS opened in Bangalore in December 2009. Both centres are located within the premises of the Airbus Engineering Centre India that has been in operation since 2007.
