The military and civil design organisation has been awarded the Raksha Srijan Ratn-2021-22 unfer the category of Indigenisation/Import Substitution
The military and civil design organisation has been awarded the Raksha Srijan Ratn-2021-22 unfer the category of Indigenisation/Import Substitution
‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’, the vision of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a great source of inspiration and would go a long way in strengthening the Indian Armed forces, said Ramineni Ramachandra Rao, managing director of Bengaluru-based Merlinhawk Aerospace.
The military and civil design organisation has been awarded the Raksha Srijan Ratn-2021-22, given as part of Raksha Mantri Award for Excellence under the category of Indigenisation/Import Substitution.
Mr. Rao received the award from the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday at DefExpo-22, being held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat from October 18 to 22.
Hails from Vijayawada
A native of Vijayawada, Mr. Rao did his schooling and college here. His company Merlinhawk, established 35 years ago, has been working towards indigenising various airborne systems and ground support equipment for the Indian Armed Forces. “Our equipment is currently flying on various helicopters such as ALH, LCH, LUH, MI 17s and Cheetah/Chetak,” he said, adding that the firm’s other systems were used by the Indian armed forces at forward bases from Leh to the Andamans and from Arunachal to Rajasthan. “We are also exporting some of these equipment to Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries,” he added.
Merlinhawk is one of the 20 companies selected from 200 firms that participated in this year’s event. It recently set up a manufacturing facility to cater to the growing needs of the defence sector.