Article Posted on : - Feb 11, 2011

A file photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): Aiming to tap the defence electronics market, Indian engineering giant Larsen and Toubro (L&T) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with European arms manufacturing company Cassidian in Bangalore.

Cassidian is the newly renamed defence and security division of Europe's leading aerospace group EADS.

The deal for joint development and market exploration for defence products in the fields of electronic warfare, radars, avionics and mobile systems was signed by M V Kotwal, President Heavy Engineering, L&T and Bernd Wenzler, CEO of Cassidian Electronics.

L&T will hold 74 per cent of the joint venture. The systems design and engineering activities of the projects under the JV would take place at Cassidian's newly opened engineering centre in Bangalore.

Addressing a press conference after signing the JV, Kotwal said, "It (the venture) will not only serve the Indian armed forces with state-of-the art technology, but also provide a platform for making significant contributions to the global market in high-technology defence equipment."

The JV will deliver indigenous solutions for military requirements of Indian customers as well as the world market and would also assure life-time support for the technology and the equipments developed under it.

Wenzler described the venture as a proof of Cassidian's commitment to India, "Our joint venture is proof of our commitment to India. Cassidian would like to establish an Indian industrial base for our European technologies with the development of a long term partnership."

He said the company is prepared to bring additional capabilities into the JV after Indian laws allow an increase of shares up to 49 per cent in the defence sector.