BDL ties up with UK firm to make advanced missiles

Facility expected to commence operations by 2022-23

Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and MBDA of United Kingdom (UK) have signed a licensing agreement to establish a facility for the Final Assembly, Integration and Test (FAIT) of Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile ASRAAM) missiles in India on Tuesday. The agreement was signed by BDL director (Technical) NP Diwakar and MBDA international cooperation director George Kyriakides in the presence of Commodore Siddharth Mishra (Retd), BDL’s chairman & managing director at a virtual ceremony along with director (production) P. Radhakrishna, director (finance) N. Srinivasulu, and others. Under the agreement, MBDA will transfer the equipment and knowledge to BDL for establishing the facility expected to commence operations by 2022-23. Commodore Siddharth Mishra (Retd), CMD, BDL stated that signing of the licencing agreement reinforces the BDL’s commitment to contribute towards ‘Make in India’ and the ‘Atmanirbhar’ initiatives in the defence sector.