Israel Aerospace Industries wants its two new joint ventures in India and Brazil to mature into fully fledged prime contractors able to develop and manage complex defence and space procurement programmes from scratch for their domestic customer.
It is part of a long-term strategy spearheaded by chief executive Itzhak Nissan to reduce the state-owned company's reliance on the Israeli government and leverage IAI's intellectual property in markets where Israel enjoys friendly relations.
IAI has already set up a subsidiary in the USA, Stark Aerospace, and has a joint venture with Germany's Rheinmetall Defence.
It established its Indian operation, Nova, last year with Indian motors to construction giant Tata. Although part of an offset requirement for various defence deals, Nissan is keen to stress that the venture is more than a manufacturing outsourcing operation.
"It is not about production, but system integration, analysis, engineering and support," he says. "Our target is to develop a programme together and end up with a defence company in India to propose new projects and participate in open opportunities in India."
IAI plans to recruit Indian engineers and set up a facility near Hyderabad. "We want to build a real defence company leveraging IAI technology," he says.
The strategy is the same in Brazil, where IAI is creating a venture with industrial group Synergy, which Nissan says will eventually be able to "work on new projects for the government in the unmanned air vehicles, space or missiles sector".
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Source: Flight Daily News
