Ever since the pandemic of coronavirus took over the world, there have been major lifestyle changes in the otherwise normal things that we do. Social gatherings in the forms of airshows, conferences and exhibitions that bring the industry together have been affected but going by the new normal, some of these are being held virtually. One such transitional conference is the Lockheed Martin-SIDM-CII Suppliers’ Conference and Exhibition 2020. To provide an opportunity to the Indian Industry to understand and interact with various businesses of Lockheed Martin along with their partners who are looking to source from India, a virtual conference is being conducted. The Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and Confederations of Indian Industry (CII)are organising the Suppliers’ Conference and Exhibition for Lockheed Martin on its Virtual Platform ‘CII HIVE’ from 27th July – 27th August 2020.

The key highlights of the Conference and Exhibition include:

• Presentation by Lockheed Martin Businesses and their Partners
• Capability Presentations by Indian MSMEs
• Virtual B2B meetings with Supply Chain team of Lockheed Martin
• Virtual exhibition area for Indian MSMEs to showcase their company

Lockheed Martin is presenting their specific requirements at the Conference and are looking to source them through the Indian Industry to meet their offset obligations and global requirements in the business areas of missile fire control systems, rotary and mission systems, aeronautics, and space.

For more than three decades, Lockheed Martin has been a trusted partner to India’s defence and aerospace industry accelerating its manufacturing, skilling and technical capabilities. The company is shaping the future with world-leading innovation and advanced technologies and committed to supporting India’s vision of achieving greater self-reliance. For more than a decade, its Indian joint ventures have supported ‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Startup India’ initiatives of the Government contributing to India’s aerospace and defence ecosystem including transport, fighter and rotary-wing aircraft for India’s requirements and export, standing true to its commitment of ‘For India, From India’.

Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Ltd. builds critical components for the C-130J Super Hercules to include the tactical airlifter’s complete empennage unit. It is the sole supplier of the empennage for all C-130Js built, delivered and flown and truly represents the “Make in India” initiative. India’s recent acquisition of the MH-60R SEAHAWK, the world’s most advanced maritime helicopter, will also provide opportunities for Indian industry to integrate into its global supply chain.

The conference states its aim clearly in the tagline, ‘Making India part of the Global Supply Chain’.

“The F-16 wing production is just the tooling's put in place we expect to be up and running later this year/early next year. Even with a COVID situation we were able to not see too much of a delay and are making great progress on that front. These are again, to meet global requirements and through this joint venture, we flow down to feed into tier 1 tier 2 tier 3 suppliers in India,” William Blair, Vice President & Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin, India informed.

Jayant D.Patil, President, SIDM stated during his inaugural address at the conference, “ It is truly a privilege to be associated with Lockheed Martin, the largest defence and space company in the globe for this kind of a landmark event. The defence cooperation between India and the United States (U.S.) is an important aspect of their respective strategic policy initiatives, also expanding to B2B co-operations. Having begun in a big way about 15 years back, our interactions are only growing year on year today.” Talking about the defence relationship between the two countries, Patil added that it encompasses a very broad spectrum of initiatives ranging from intelligence sharing to joint humanitarian and relief efforts to joint military exercises, defence trade and most importantly co-production and co-development including specific technologies being made available on military systems with a focus that the Indian and the U.S. industries could work together.

He also pointed out about the “amazing gesture” by the United States recently by sailing of the USS Nimitz battle group through the South China Sea to the Indian ocean and of course our Indian Navy welcoming them and sailing along with them. “This kind of a gesture made especially at a time when India actually had some amount of commissions at its northern border essentially that's something which brings the two democracies, the longest and the largest in the world, much closer. And this conference will take it further ahead to strengthen the relationship,” he said.

Lockheed Martin Businesses are also keen to virtually tour the manufacturing/factory facilities of exhibitors at the Conference. Accordingly, they have shared the ‘Virtual Factory Tour Guidelines’ for exhibitors to follow while preparing their video. The factory tour will allow the Lockheed Martin officials to assess exhibitors’ capabilities for their next round of meetings.

“It's a proprietary platform which obviously allows to take a tour of the Indian industries virtually across geographies and a function that was earlier being conducted through physical visits to our factory premises. This is a tool which actually can virtually take you to most of those places and of course make people available for discussion. The conference and speaker engagements planned over the next couple of days will be intense as it will be focused and would potentially take Indian industries’ desires of entering into Lockheed Martin global supply chain,” Patil added.

We are pleased to have well over 500 suppliers connected with Lockheed Martin directly or through our JVs in India, and around 150 MSMEs as part of that family. We are excited to host the Lockheed Martin Supplier Conference for the seventh year running & facilitate interactions between current & prospective defence & aerospace industry partners in India,” said William Blair, Vice President & Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin, India.

Lockheed Martin has been a trusted partner to India's defence and aerospace industry for over 30 years, accelerating its manufacturing, skills and technical capabilities, standing true to the commitment to support ‘Make In India’ with ‘For India, From India’, highlighted Blair. He further added, “Your mission is ours, in the context of engaging our customers and our partners, each one of our four business areas have a very diverse portfolio and a balanced one of each area.”

He also hinted on the potential for follow-on of C-130Js, supporting the Indian Air Force. “We'll celebrate our 10-year anniversary this year of the joint venture established a decade back for Sikorsky with over 500 employees and over 154 cabins delivered and importantly having set a foundation to produce not just helicopter components and build cabins but actually now producing aircraft engine components for both GE and Rolls-Royce. It's a great example where a foundation was set and then grown, built on the basis of a mutual venture but actually was able to expand because of the very unique and extended capabilities,” Blair added.

He also informed about beginning the production of the F-16 wing which would also support the F-21 in India. The F-16 wing production is just the tooling's put in place we expect to be up and running later this year/early next year. Even with a COVID situation we were able to not see too much of a delay and are making great progress on that front. These are again, to meet global requirements and through this joint venture, we flow down to feed into tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 suppliers in India.

“It's not just about production, it's also about global innovation sourcing. We have launched an open entrepreneurial challenge so that's in collaboration with Universities with the Department of Science and Technology to open up a lot of opportunities beyond just a pure manufacturing in the defence domain. One of the key programs that was integral with that is the India Innovation Growth Program in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology and Tata Trust we kicked this off back in 2007,” said Blair.

The US-India Defence Technology & Trade Initiative takes a collaborative approach & keeps strategic level co-chairs in constant communication for requirements, added Brigadier General Brian R. Bruckbauer, Director, Air Force Security Assistance & Cooperation Directorate.

The Indian suppliers in the defence sector have a great opportunity to leverage the recent Government policies announced in May 2020 and become self-reliant, said V. L. Kantha Rao, Additional Secretary, Defence Production India, Ministry of Defence.

India appears to be an attractive hub for foreign investment in the manufacturing sector. “C130 components that are now manufactured in India are the single source of supply for every aircraft in the world. We want a strategic long-term partnership with industry in India. We often say that once an item or a group of items makes its way to India, for a manufacturer that's the last place it will ever be manufactured and that is a true testament to the capability of the Indian industry about its commitment to quality and cost,” stated Vincent Panzera, Vice President, Lockheed Martin.

During the inaugural session, Lockheed Martin also presented about the opportunities available in its supplier marketing portal.

The Indian suppliers in the defence sector have a great opportunity to leverage the recent Government policies announced in May 2020 and become self-reliant, said V. L. Kantha Rao, Additional Secretary, Defence Production India, Ministry of Defence.

Rakesh Sasibhushan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Space also added about the opportunities that lie in the future with Indian space sector expanding through various upcoming missions that further the opportunity for collaboration.