Paras Defence and Space Technologies has secured a significant order from French company Cerbair for supplying its anti-drone systems, CHIMERA 200. The significance of this deal lies not in its monetary value but in the perception of the global players about the technological capabilities of Indian defence manufacturing companies, according to Amit Mahajan, Director, Paras Defence and Space Technologies.
Mahajan termed the deal as a ‘paradigm shift’ for the company.
“The significance of this order is not in the value, it is in the mindset of a global consumer, which started looking at India not just as a manufacturing hub but as a development hub. So, this is a paradigm shift that I would like to see. It definitely opens the floodgates, but it’s a change in mindset which is going to be permanent from here on,” he said in a conversation with NDTV Profit on Wednesday.
Paras Defence and Space Technologies informed the stock exchanges on July 1 about receiving a letter of intent (LOI) from France’s Cerbair to supply 30 units of its CHIMERA 200 anti-drone system. The export order, worth Rs 22.21 crore, was secured by its subsidiary Paras Anti-Drone Technologies.
“They have started believing that an Indian company can develop a system and a European company can consume it. They have been magnanimous enough to understand this and then put their layer of software or algorithms and then deploy it,” the director added.
Mahajan was optimistic about a growing global market for anti-drone technology products from India. “These are not going in hundreds. These are going in thousands,” he said.
The top executive described the product as “one of its kind in the world”. It is a man-portable, wideband detection and neutralisation system capable of identifying and disabling over 90% of drones operating across a vast frequency range from 400 MHz to 6 GHz.
“It’s a system as big as your suitcase and you can carry it, put it in your VIP convoy and you make sure you are creating a bubble of two kilometres, only directional, where you can detect hostile drones and you can utilise it,” he said.
In the border regions, it can work as a “front line soft kill mechanism”. “It can alert various other functions and get other countermeasures active. Then you can work on the intelligence given by the system,” he said.
The partnership with Cerbair, which operates in over 18 countries, is expected to act as a “gateway into Europe” for the technology.
Mahajan noted that exports remain “Plan B” for Paras Defence. The company’s primary focus is India’s potent domestic market, where government policy prioritises Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) products.
However, he acknowledged that rising global demand, driven by the changing nature of modern warfare, means the export market cannot be ignored.
The company has also developed an Indian version of the system. It recently completed field trials by domestic companies.
“It has performed over and beyond the expectations of our customer. It has been able to create a category of procurement that did not exist when they went out for procurement. Now there is a separate category for this called the wideband detection and neutralisation system,” said the director.
Shares of Paras Defence and Space Technologies were trading 3.02% higher at Rs 1,676.5 apiece on the NSE at 1:39 p.m., while benchmark Nifty50 stood at 25,411.25, down 0.51%.
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