Hawking Defence Services Pvt Ltd, a tech start-up operating in the unmanned systems from Chennai, India, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Australian UAV Technologies, an electronics company based out of New South Wales, to establish a joint venture (JV) company.
This joint venture will enable technology transfer, joint research and development and licensed manufacturing of unmanned systems between these two entities.
Hawking Defence Services said in a statement.
“This MOU is the first step in establishing a strong and reliable unmanned systems solution provider and manufacturer for global requirements.”
Hawking has acquired a 25-acre tract of land in Tiruvallur, Tamilnadu, to construct a development centre, production facility and testing zone for our Atmanirbhar products
The Indian startup that has a branch in Sydney further adds that this venture would help both the organisations to make advances in unmanned technologies.
Further, this venture will provide cost-effective solutions and services to Indian defence services both within India and abroad thereby boosting defence exports from India.
Vijayanarayanan Rapalli, the Managing Director of Hawking Defence Services, observed:
“Timely investments into advanced Research and Development of cutting-edge defence products through investments into critical areas such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and chip development will enable India to become an epicentre for Advanced Research thereby increasing its global share of defence exports.”
The MOU was signed at the Austrade office in the Australian Consulate in Chennai by Rajeev Koundinya, CEO Hawking Defence and Ken Taylor, Managing Director of Australian UAV Technologies.
Hawking Defence Services claims that this is probably the first of its kind MoU between defence industry companies since the initial initiatives of the Australia-India Free Trade Agreement came into effect.