KANPUR: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday inaugurated the Ammunition & Missiles Complex, the first leg of the state’s defence corridor in the presence of Chief of Army Staff, Gen Manoj Pande.
According to Ashish Rajvanshi, CEO, Adani Defence, nearly 4000 jobs will be generated in this complex with five times the multiplier effect on MSMEs and the local ecosystem benefiting from it indirectly and an investment plan of Rs 3000+ crore.
The Adani ammunition centre is South Asia’s largest ammunition manufacturing complex and has been dedicated to the brave warriors of the Balakot strike who carried out 'Operation Bandar' in response to the Pulwama attack that claimed the lives of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers.
The two units are being projected as a symbol of India's journey towards self-reliance and technological prowess in the defence sector.
Spread over 500 acres, the facility in Kanpur is set to become one of the largest integrated ammunition manufacturing complexes. It will produce small, medium and large calibre ammunition for the armed forces, paramilitary forces and police. The facility has started rolling out small calibre ammunition, starting with 150 million rounds estimated at 25 per cent of India’s annual requirement.
Moreover, Adani Group will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aerospace department of IIT Kanpur, as per Karan Adani.
In 2022, Uttar Pradesh Industrial Development Authority (UPIDA) had inked memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Adani Aerospace and Defence and several other firms to develop Kanpur as South Asia's largest manufacturing facility for arms and ammunition.
Consequently, the Adani Defence System and Technologies Limited (ADSTL) acquired 202 hectares of land and laid the plan to develop four manufacturing units with state-of-the art technology to build small and medium calibre ammunition, along with short-range air defence missiles.
Thereafter, the company formed Carroballista Systems Limited (CSL) and Agneya Systems Limited (ASL) through which it would manufacture around 12 types of guns (with the Israeli firm Elbit System) in addition to making 40 types of ammunition and rocket systems (with Bulgarian firm Armaco JSCO).
The Adani unit will also manufacture light machine gun NEGEV, assault rifles ACE and TAVOR, 9mm pistol Masada, sub-machine gun Uzi, sniper rifles Galil and DAN, in collaboration with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) at Saadh.
"It will be a key facilitator in India's goal of achieving $5.0 billion exports in defence manufacturing," said Rajvanshi.
According to the deputy commissioner, industries, Kanpur, the CSL will manufacture 300 units of gun system per year for 155 mm calibre to 200 mm calibre, on the five acres of land provided on lease by ADSTL.
"The CSL has claimed to generate 1,000 jobs indirectly from their unit," said Srivastava.
Further, the arms manufacturing licence of ASL and ADSTL revealed that every year the group will also manufacture 50,000 units each of bi-modular charge system (BMCS) for artillery guns, anti-aircraft movable rockets, 155mm smoke projectiles, 155 mm artillery shells, mortars (81, 84 and 120 mm), 5 lakh hand grenades, 4 lakh piece of 40mm rocket-propelled grenade and other varied calibre of armour-piercing, high-explosive anti-tank ammunition, and different types of demolition charges.
According to the latest SIPRI report, with an 11 per cent share of total global arms imports, India was the world’s biggest importer of major arms from 2018 to 2022, a position it has held for the period 1993–2022.
It retained this position even though its arms imports dropped by 11 per cent between 2013–17 and 2018–22.
The decrease was attributed to several factors including attempts to replace imports with major arms that are designed and produced domestically, India’s slow and complex arms procurement process and efforts to diversify its arms suppliers.
