BEL missile seeker venture with Israel's Rafael may come through this year

Madhumathi D.S.

Bangalore, April 23

Bharat Electronics' long-planned venture to make missile seekers in the country with an Israeli partner looks set to come through this year.
The tie-up proposed between the navaratna defence enterprise and Israeli major Rafael Advanced Defence Systems has been in the works for some time.
Although the two companies signed a term sheet more than two years ago, it looks an easier prospect now than before as Rafael is agreeable to holding a lower equity of 26 per cent in the proposed venture, according to Mr Ashwani Kumar Datt, Chairman and Managing Director of BEL.
At present, the Government limits foreign direct investment in a defence venture to 26 per cent.
“We are trying to re-do the business plan and finalise (the details of the proposed joint venture),” Mr Datt told Business Line.
He did not mention the likely investment – which is expected to be at a couple of hundred crore rupees – saying, “Money is not the issue but others, such as self-reliance with limited dependence on imports.”
Mr Datt said missile systems had a good market potential in the coming years and would be an integral part of the Rs 5,000-crore company's business.
BEL is also part of a consortium that will make Akash anti-aircraft missiles worth Rs 4,600 crore for the Air Force.
The venture, when it comes through, may involve technology transfer, manufacturing at any of BEL's nine facilities, as also co-development of seekers for other missiles. Apart from meeting the needs of the two countries, the MoU of February 2008 had also a provision for exports.
A seeker or ‘homer' is a mini precision guidance radar or device that is virtually the brain of missile. It detects enemy targets in air or on ground and guides the missile to destroy them.
Seeker technology, according to Dr V.K. Saraswat, Director-General of Defence Research and Development Organisation and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, who spoke at a recent event in Bangalore, is a very important but weak link that the defence R&D establishment was trying to bridge.
As the missiles portfolio development plan got enlarged, a variety of seekers would be needed in future, he had said.
The home-made Akash anti-aircraft missile, for example, does not use a seeker and is controlled and commanded from ground continuously.