Diversifying its operations outside the traditional automotive industry, auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Monday said it would bid for an estimated $3 billion for land systems to the Indian military out of a total market of around $5 billion.“The total Indian market for land systems stands at $5 billion, in which we intend to have a share of around 60 per cent or $3 billion,” said Mahindra Group vice-chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra. The group, which is in advanced stages of signing a JV agreement with Italy’s Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS), plans to make the military bid through such JVs with world-class defence vehicle manufacturers in the next 3-5 years. The company hopes to fight for this share of the military market with its new stable of five specialised armoured vehicles — Mahindra Axe, Marksmen, Striker, Up Armoured Scorpio and Mine Protected Vehicle — which will roll out from the company’s new factory to be located in the Capital’s suburb of Faridabad. The company is investing Rs 40 crore on this venture.Currently, the company with its armoured Rakshaks and Up Armoured Scorpios (bullet-proof) has a 60 per cent share of the armed forces and paramilitary forces market. Along with this, the company also sells 1,400-1,500 ordinary Scorpios per annum to the army. M&M’s defence arm, Mahindra Defence System (MDS) — which is primarily into land defence systems like bullet-proof vehicles among others — is aggressively looking at diversifying into other peripheries like underwater systems. The company’s JV with WASS (part of the $20-billion Finmeccanica Group) is for developing underwater weapon systems.“The Finmeccanica Group has had a long association with the Armed Forces. Our proposed underwater defence JV will jointly address the Indian requirement for underwater defence, bringing to the country’s Armed Forces affordable world-class underwater defence systems. The range of MDS products displayed at the DefExpo underscores our competencies in land and naval systems, military communications and system integration,” Mahindra said.The two firms would jointly explore the possibility of developing underwater weapon systems for Indian and foreign markets through the 74:26 per cent JV. “The JV will initially develop underwater weapon systems,” Mahindra said at the DefExpo here.
