February 12, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 10, 1423

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NEW DELHI, Feb 11: India’s state-owned Bharat Dynamics (BDL) armament firm and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) unveiled plans on Tuesday to jointly manufacture missiles for export, a senior Indian official here said.

He said the agreement with a subsidiary of Aeronautic Defence and Space Company was signed on Thursday at the end of an international airshow in Bangalore.

The Bharat Dynamics called the accord a “key milestone” in strategic ties between India’s armament industry and Europe’s largest aerospace and defence firm.

A BDL official said the joint venture would produce “all varieties of systems, including anti-tank, surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles required both by Indian armed forces and those abroad”.

“Such partnerships will allow Bharat Dynamics to expand its activities in research and development as well as in manufacturing. This partnership will address the export market with the support of a strong European partner,” the official said.

The EADS too hailed BDL’s collaboration with its subsidiary, MBDA.

“For the first time MBDA is engaging in strategic cooperation of this level with a company and country outside western Europe,” said Marwan Lahoud, Chief Executive Officer of EADS, which also owns 80 per cent of Airbus.

The EADS, whose other co-chairman is a German, Rainer Hertrich, specializes in aeronautics and defence and employs 100,000 people. Its revenue was 30.8 billion euros in 2001.

India is racing ahead with its ambitious missile development project and later this year will test its longest-range ballistic missile, the Agni-III, which can drop nuclear warheads on targets as far away as deep inside China.

Besides the ballistic missile, India has nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Prithvi missiles, with a maximum range of 350 kilometres, and an array of other systems built over the past two decades.—AFP