'Do Not Need Full Ownership if You Have a Good Partner'

In the din of rapid-fire announcements around defence tie-ups for manufacturing in India, the £17.8-billion BAE Systems has made two very significant breakthroughs that have the potential for multi-year orders from India’s defence forces.

- Roger Carr

Lately, it bagged the $542-million order to supply 145 M777 ultra-lightweight howitzers to the Indian Army. Fully-built gun deliveries begin this June at two per month, while a BAE-Mahindra JV readies to assemble and produce the artillery guns in-house. Earlier, it supplied 123 Hawk Mk 132 aircraft to India, 99 of which were built in India by Hindustan Aeronautics under licence from BAE. In February this year, HAL and BAE unveiled the ‘Advanced Hawk’ at the Aero India Show in Bengaluru, which could be of interest to India and other nations in the region. With that, BAE is among the rare international organisations with firm orders for manufacturing in India. Business Today’s Rajeev Dubey met with BAE Systems’ Chairman Sir Roger Carr during his India visit. Excerpts:

Defence is a global industry where you make in one place and sell around the world. How will economic nationalism affect it?

There is no doubt that countries now recognise they have a requirement to build within the country, driven by the need to create value in the domestic economy. What we are seeing in India is typical of other parts of the world. It is true in Saudi Arabia and Australia where indigenous manufacturing is becoming the order of the day. That’s absolutely fine, because history is built on having not one point of manufacture with an export capability, but having distributed manufacturing globally. Whether it’s the US, Saudi, Australia or India, it is about partnerships. So, the way the world is going very much aligns with the way we have built our business over the years.

Many governments seek wholesale technology transfer. How comfortable are you doing that?