Posted on 02/10/2005 5:49:30 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
European missile major scouting for software developers
By Sandeep Dikshit
BANGALORE, FEB 9. The European missile systems major, MBDA, plans to make India its fifth major centre of operations. The company already has a strong presence in France, Italy and the U.K. and its impending merger with a German company will give it a foothold in a fourth European country. India is the next country in its sights, said company officials.
As many as 30,000 MBDA's anti-tank missile Milan have been produced under licence by the state owned Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and some have even been exported. While seeking to extend the partnership further, MBDA is also scouting for reputed software developers here to outsource some of the works it does in Europe, said MBDA official, Mati Hindrekus. In the long term that could even lead to the French company setting up a major software development centre in India.
"We formalised a long standing relationship with BDL by signing a memorandum of understanding two years back. With a good history of working with the local industry, we are looking to supply missile systems for the Navy's Bangalore class destroyers and if the deals go through, similarly equip Scorpene submarines and Mirage fighters. We also understand that the Indian Air Force is looking for air defence systems."
India is on the verge of finalising a $1 billion deal to make French Scorpene submarines in the country. It has also begun the process for importing 125 multi-role fighters and the French are offering an upgraded version of the Mirage-2000. Being a company with strong French roots, MBDA senses a long-term opportunity if the two deals go through. In that case, BDL could be licensed to make the missile systems.
Apart from scouting for business opportunities from the Indian armed forces, MBDA is also looking at outsourcing some sub-systems for its overseas clients but Mr. Hindrekus admits that the road will be rough because of Indian and Western sensibilities on arms exports. "It will not be carte blanche. Such cooperation is possible in some areas," he acknowledges. MBDA has also submitted proposals for joint research with the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). The areas include battle space modelling, guidance systems and emerging technologies such as smart materials.
"We are proposing a complete change of gear in our collaboration with India and the Indian industry. This collaboration will bring several advantages. MBDA will benefit from Indian software skills and lower cost base. India will get advanced guided weapons technology, which will give it autonomy in developing its current and long-term defence equipment capabilities," says India based official, Jean-Pierre Talamoni.
Ping!!!!!!!
You can be forever grateful you parents didn't name you like the author of this article... middle school would have been a living hell.
It's classically pronounced as something like "Deekshitt".
However, one should never underestimate the cruel imagination of children!
Boy, and how.
(watch, "martin fierro" prolly translates into "yummy chinchilla" in Indian)
I'm sure they'll find plenty of hacked DoD code floating around to shorten development time by cut & paste.
Who knows, maybe this firm had some TERCOM algorithms form the Tomahawk in their pocket?
If Im not mistaken,both India & MBDA have being doing/have done work in those areas.
I'm sure legions of French and German programmers will be thrilled given the unemployment rate in both countries.
The funny thing is, France is probably just looking for a place where the employees are allowed to work more than 35 hours a week. :)
But the EU is about lift its part of the arms embargo against China. So will technologies for defense in India go to the EU, then China, and finally, to Pakistan?
Not necessarily so as the EU will probably open parallel operations in India & China to cater the to the 2 nations needs.It won't be unprofitable given the huge sizes of the markets & both operations would probably have an export pathway(Indian operations could handle Malaysia,Indonesia,Singapore etc) while China could possibly sell it's wares to Pakistan or it's cronies in the M.E.I think a precondition of both nations would be that their systems would never find their way to the other's military given the intense (but controlled) rivalry between the 2.This technique has been adopted to perfection by the Russians who know have run R&D as well as manufacturing facilities in both countries.
& what makes you think that Indian Trade Unions will allow foreigners to get a big chunk of the pie in a country with one of the largest pools of trained tech-manpower??
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