Swedish armament maker Bofors has re-entered the Indian market, almost after two decades, through an agreement to upgrade the Indian air defense guns, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Tuesday.
It has signed an agreement with India's Ordnance Factories Board for what will be the second upgrade of the 40mm L-70 guns inducted by the Indian army in the early 1960s.
The guns are currently produced by ordnance factories under license from the Swedish company.
Over 600 such guns are currently in the army's inventory. Though India's armed forces are increasingly opting for missile- based air defense systems, the army wants to retain gun-based systems too, the PTI said.
Besides upgrading the air defense guns, BAe Systems, the world's third largest defense company, is aggressively looking for manufacturing partners in India to make light, medium and heavy- caliber howitzers, naval guns, armored combat vehicles and missile launchers.
According to a senior BAe executive, the company is in talks with major private Indian players in the defense sector, like L and T, Tata Power and others, as it scouts for technology transfer partners, the PTI reported.
After the upgrade, the L-70 guns will be offered by the Ordnance Factory Board to the army for trials, it quoted sources as saying.
Bofors was sold to U.S. artillery giant United Technologies three years ago. It became part of the BAe consortium a year ago when the firm bought over the U.S. gun manufacturer.
Bofors had come under a cloud following allegations that it had paid kickbacks to secure a deal for 410 howitzers in the 1980s.
The agreement was signed by Ordnance Factory Board chairman Sudpita Ghosh and Hakan Kangert, chairman of BAe Systems SWS Defense, in Kolkata recently, the PTI said.
"The upgraded gun is jam-proof even in the face of extremely severe electronic-counter measures and will have the capability to match any modern air defense gun system," a BAe official said.
Source: Xinhua
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