‘We see opportunities for many of our solutions in India’

SP’s Show News (SP’s): What is Rockwell Collins’ strategy in India?

T.C. Chan (Chan): India represents one of the most dynamic markets in the world with gross domestic product (GDP) growing at eight to 10 per cent annually and defence expenditures ranked ninth in the world. We are actively engaged in both the commercial and government sectors of the aerospace and defence market.

Rockwell Collins is committed to India, growing our investment, presence and contribution to the local economy as well as transferring technology. We see opportunities for many of our solutions, ranging from network-enabled communications to advanced, integrated avionics and communications for fixed and rotary wing aircraft, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Rockwell Collin’s strategy in India is straight-strengthening our position by capturing business related to airborne system upgrades and updating communications infrastructure with net-enabled interoperable solutions.

We plan to do this through strategic partnerships, by developing new and tailoring existing capabilities in India through our growing incountry systems engineering, programme management and business development resources, as well as tapping Rockwell Collins’ best of breed solutions from across our enterprise.

SP’s: Does Rockwell Collins plan to expand its existing presence in India?

Chan: Rockwell Collins in India offers all the breadth and depth of our products and capabilities, as well as an entire international business team to champion sales, marketing, strategy, engineering, operations, services and support for business pursuits.

We are expanding our efforts in India with the opening of a facility in New Delhi. We plan to grow this facility over the next five years, providing more jobs to the Indian economy. This facility will house business development, programme management, engineering and related support activities for net-enabled communications, navigation, surveillance, displays, sensors, simulation and training, and integrated systems and subsystems for airborne, ground and maritime applications.

We established our initial presence in India in 2008 with the opening of our India Design Centre (IDC) in Hyderabad to meet the needs of our customers while providing a local presence. With it, our customers have access to top-notch, around-the-clock engineering talent backed by our extensive experience in developing innovative avionics, communications, navigation and electronic solutions.

This facility enables us to support local and international governments, aerospace original equipment manufacturers and defence contractors with engineering design services and systems that can help achieve a shorter time to market, at a lower programme or project life-cycle cost, with innovative solutions of the highest quality.

In October 2010, we expanded the IDC with the opening of Phase 2 of the facility in order to accommodate the growth of the IDC team, which today totals to 250 employees with plans to double by 2012.

Rockwell Collins is committed to helping India achieve mission success. We will continue to demonstrate this through increasing employees, facilities, capabilities, technology transfer and partnerships.