Mithra Group Ties Up with Israeli Firm to Manufacture Armoured Vehicle Bodies – Make in India

Vijayawada: Vijayawada-based Mithra group’s defence subsidiary, which does armour plating work for vehicles used by the paramilitary forces, has tied up with Mofet Etzion Ltd, an Israeli company that specialises in ballistic armour technology. Mithra has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mofet Etzion under which the latter will be transferring its technology to Mithra.

“We set up the defence unit in 2016, encouraged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India call. We started making armour-plated bodies for vehicles that were delivered to the paramilitary forces in 2017, in technical partnership with an American firm. But Mithra and the American partner decided to part ways by mutual consent because the partner was a specialist only in steel armouring,” MV Srinivas, a director of Mithra, said.

According to Srinivas, Mofet Etzion specialised in armour that was embedded in the vehicle’s body. “The embedded armour ensures that the vehicle is not easily identified as being armour-plated. Moreover, Mofet Etzion also makes armour that is re-usable. The armoured plates can be transferred to a new vehicle, unlike steel armour that has to be junked with the vehicle. Re-usable armour has a shelf-life for 40 years, meaning that it can be transferred to a new fleet each time a fleet is replaced. This significantly reduces the cost of ownership of the vehicles for the government,” he said.

Mithra had received a license to produce 1,500 armour-plated vehicles per year from the government. “We have officially tied-up with the military division of Ashok Leyland, a heavy vehicle manufacturer, under which we will be building the bodies of armoured vehicles on Ashok Leyland chassis,” he said. Mithra was also in talks with the Tata group to offer the ballistic armour to its military division.

Mithra had invested Rs 30 crore in setting up a specialty vehicle assembly unit near Vijayawada. The unit has 30 fulltime employees. “Some of these workers will be sent to Mofet Etzion’s facilities in Israel for training in the coming months,” he added.

He said that the MoU is focussed on technical transfer from Mofet Etzion. “Mofet Etzion is interested in acquiring equity in our military vehicles division, but we will consider that in Phase II of our relationship,” Srinivas said.
Srinivas said Mofet Etzion had a strong relationship with the Pentagon, the department of defence in the United States. “We hope to be supplying our vehicles to countries in Africa and the Middle East as we deepen our relationship with Mofet Etzion,” he said.

Source: Times of India

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