The Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab announced that it will start the production of Carl Gustaf weapon system in India in 2024, and will soon finalise the location for its manufacturing facility.
"We will start production of Carl Gustaf weapon systems in 2024. We will soon finalise the location for manufacturing Carl Gustaf Rifles in India," Mats Palmberg, the Chairman and Managing Director of Saab India told CNBC-TV18.
He further said that the recent war in Ukraine, has led to an increased need for defence equipment from all countries, and the company is developing a twin seater aircraft in collaboration with Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer air, "we have pitched the twin seater fighter jet in response to the Indian governments Request for Information (RFI)," Palmberg added.
The Carl-Gustaf weapon system has been in service with the Indian Army since 1976, and its earlier M2 and M3 variants have been licence-produced in India. The M4 weapon system is capable of firing a variety of ammunition, including anti armour and illumination rounds, with the maximum range being 1,500 metre.
Saab announced its plan to set up a manufacturing facility in India for the Carl-Gustaf M4 shoulder-fired weapon system in September 2022 under the 'Make in India' initiative of Indian government to bolster indigenous defence manufacturing. The manufacturing would be done by a new fully SAAB-owned subsidiary, Saab FFV India Pvt. Ltd. and this will be first time the company will be setting up a manufacturing facility for this outside Sweden.
Recently, Saab had said that it has not renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Adani Group for manufacturing brand-new Gripen E fighter jets in India.
“Our MoU with Adani Group expired in 2019 and has not been renewed. Saab is waiting for the next step in the Indian Air Force fighter acquisition process. We are looking forward to the formal process to start,” Mats Palmberg told CNBC-TV18.
On August 31, 2017, Saab and Adani Group announced entering into an agreement to manufacture Gripen E fighter planes in India. The agreement said that Adani would be Saab’s partner if the Swedish company is chosen to supply the Gripen E fighter jets to India.
Palmberg said that the future collaboration with an Indian partner on making fighter jets in India will depend on the kind of acquisition model the Indian government comes up.
(Edited by : Anushka Sharma)
