6 months ago
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The $23 cardinal JSW Group is mounting up an unmanned aerial systems manufacturing installation with $90 cardinal (about Rs. 850 crore) concern astatine Maheshwaram electronics manufacturing cluster, connected the outskirts of Hyderabad.
It has entered into a strategical concern with US-based defence exertion steadfast Shield AI to manufacture the latter’s Group 3 unmanned aerial strategy (UAS) – nether a semipermanent licensing statement for transportation of technology. A fixed-wing, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), agelong endurance intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) platform, V-BAT is presently deployed by aggregate equipped forces globally, including the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs).
The manufacturing, astatine the installation of JSW Defence, is expected to commence by past 4th of 2026, JSW Group said aft the instauration chromatic laying ceremonial successful which IT and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu, JSW Group’s Parth Jindal and others participated.
The concern volition alteration JSW to found a section proviso concatenation and make an precocious installation successful India for manufacturing, assembling and investigating V-BAT. The effort volition alteration large-scale accumulation of V-BATs successful India to service the needs of the Indian Armed Forces and besides relation arsenic a planetary accumulation hub, the Group said.
Project volition make implicit 300 high-value jobs
The installation is dispersed implicit 16 acres and volition person a capableness to manufacture 300 V-BAT drones annually. It volition location production, repair, testing, administrative, and enactment infrastructure. This task volition make implicit 300 high-value jobs, the Minister’s bureau said.
JSW Group’s Parth Jindal and Sarjan Shah, managing director, Shield AI astatine the instauration chromatic laying of JSW defence installation successful Hyderabad | Photo Credit: BY ARRANGEMENT
“From manufacturing the globally renowned V-BAT astatine scale, the installation volition laic the instauration for an integrated, end-to-end UAS ecosystem, from precocious manufacturing to relation training, manufacturing repair and operations (MRO) and sustained innovation. This task stands among the astir important defence exertion transfers to India,” Mr. Jindal said.
On the Group’s defence ventures, helium said the drone manufacturing task follows the JSW Gecko Motors associated venture, with a Ukrainian company, to marque peculiar mobility vehicles successful Chandigarh. The installation was commissioned astir 18 months agone and supplied astir 200 vehicles betwixt the Indian Army and the United Nations. In the aforesaid facility, JSW has different JV with an American steadfast to manufacture off-road vehicles.
Total Rs.1,200 cr investment
The Group volition beryllium investing full Rs. 1,200 crore connected the defence ventures, which includes Rs. 320 crore towards the exertion transportation from Shield. He said India Armed Forces were evaluating the UAS from a localisation perspective. The archetypal bid is for importing 8 UAS nether the exigency procurement route, thing catered straight by Shield AI. The larger orders volition beryllium placed erstwhile the installation is up, helium said.
