Rel Defence, Russia's USC to tie up for building 4 warships

[Water Car Engineer]

MUMBAI: Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Defence will sign an agreement with Russia's United Shipbuilding Company (USC) to build four warships for the Indian Navy at Pipavav shipbuilding facility in Gujarat. The contract, estimated to be worth about Rs 30,000 crore, is likely to be signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, sources said. During the PM's current two-day visit to Russia, several defence and nuclear deals are expected to be signed of which the Reliance Defence-USC deal is one.

According to sources, Reliance Defence and USC would jointly build four Talwar class frigates for the Indian Navy at Pipavav facility at a cost of about Rs 30,000 crore. If the plan fructifies, it would be the first instance of an Indian warship being built at a private shipbuilding facility in the country. So far, only the government-controlled shipbuilding companies, led by Mazagon Dock and Cochin Shipyard, got orders to build defence ships. The government has allowed private players to build warships as part its 'Make in India' initiative.

Sources said in addition to the orders to build four new ships, the Reliance Defence-USC deal could also include an agreement to work on refit and modernization of all those Naval ships which are of Russian and Soviet origin, also at the Pipavav facility. At present, there are about 35 ships of Russian or Soviet origin with the Indian Navy. The refit and modernization business for the two companies could be worth an additional Rs 35,000 crore over the next 15 years, sources said.

Rel Defence, Russia's USC to tie up for building 4 warships - Times of India


Three big deals for each branch of the military for the private sector - Not subsystem, but full on platform integration work, mostly, if not all done by gov owned companies till now.

TATA Group - C295 Military Transport Aircraft - Airforce

L&T - K9 Thunder Tracked Artillery - Army

Reliance Group - Talwar Frigates - Navy