India's largest ammunition complex in Kanpur to create 4,000 jobs
What's the story
Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, inaugurated the Adani Ammunition Complex in Kanpur.
The Kanpur facility is South Asia's largest ammunition manufacturing complex, and honors the heroes of the Balakot airstrike which was launched in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack in 2019.
Starting in March, the 202-hectare complex will produce arms, ammunition, rockets, and artillery shells.
Employment
Project expected to generate 4,000 jobs
Ashish Rajvanshi, CEO of Adani Defence, revealed that the complex will create nearly 4,000 jobs directly and 20,000 jobs indirectly.
The Adani Group plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIT Kanpur's aerospace department and will produce missiles for the Indian Armed Forces based on demand.
In 2022, the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Development Authority (UPIDA) signed an MoU with Adani Aerospace and Defence to develop Kanpur as South Asia's largest arms and ammunition manufacturing hub.
Foreign collaborations
Adani's collaboration with Israeli and Bulgarian companies
Adani Group's Carroballista Systems Limited (CSL) will collaborate with Israeli company Elbit Systems, to produce around a dozen types of firearms.
Agneya Systems Limited (ASL) will partner with Bulgarian company Armaco JSCO to manufacture forty types of ammunition and rocket systems.
Additionally, the Adani unit will work with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) to produce light machine gun Negev, assault rifles ACE and TAVOR, 9mm pistol Masada, sub-machine gun Uzi, and sniper rifles Galil and DAN.
Raising exports
India's goal of achieving $5 billion in defense exports
The CEO of Adani Defence believes that the Adani Ammunition Complex will play a crucial role in helping India achieve its $5 billion defense manufacturing export goal.
The latest SIPRI report shows that India was the world's largest importer of major arms from 2018 to 2022, accounting for 11% of global arms imports.
Despite efforts to replace imports with domestically produced arms and diversify suppliers, India remains the top importer.
Ammunition
Artillery shells, anti-aircraft rockets, grenades and more
The ammunition facility is licensed to annually produce 50,000 units of bi-modular charge system (BMCS) for the artillery, anti-aircraft mobile rockets, 155mm smoke projectiles, and 155 mm artillery shells.
Also, it will manufacture five lakh hand grenades, four lakh pieces of 40mm rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), and a varied caliber of armor-piercing, high-explosive anti-tank ammunition, along with different types of demolition charges.