Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems Pvt Ltd. (KRAS), a joint venture between India's Kalyani Group, and Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, on Tuesday rolled out its first batch of Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) for the Indian Army and the Air Force.

KRAS plans to deliver more than 1,000 MRSAM missile kits for the Indian Army and Air Force over the coming years. These missile sections will then be forwarded to India's state-run defence miniratna Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) for further and future integration.

The event was attended by officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the BDL, and the Israeli delegation including Brig Gen Pinhas Yungman (retd), Head of Air and Missile Defence Systems division of Rafael. The Kalyani delegation was led by Rajinder Bhatia, President and CEO of BFL Defence and also by representatives from the IAI, Israel.

"This is beginning of a new era, filled with self-confidence, a marked step-change in technological expertise and a collective demonstration of capability to be the global manufacturing hub for defence products. We are confident to complete the order far ahead of the stipulated time, and support the armed forces with the best in class missile kits. Apart from the missile kits, we will extend our support in Maintenance and Repair Operations (MRO) as in-service Air Defence Missile System for the armed forces," said Baba Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director, Kalyani Group.

"We have been a reliable partner to the Indian armed forces for almost three decades, and these missile kits are a testimony of our commitment to 'Make in India' cause. We are confident KRAS will not only build products for the Indian armed forces but will, at the same time, trigger and help achieve Indian government's vision of exports from India," said Yungman.

KRAS is India's pioneering private sector MSME with advanced manufacturing capabilities and facilities dedicated to especially address the assembly, integration and testing (AIT) of the state-of the-art weapon systems being inducted by the defence forces.

Parallel with manufacturing, KRAS is maturing to address MRO too, that of a major in-service Air Defence Missile System for the Indian Air Force.

As part of its "Make-in-India" efforts, KRAS has also expanded its scope to include the development of Advanced Defence Systems and Remotely-Controlled Weapon System.

(IANS)