As part of these upgrades, Sasmos will be developing more than 1,200 parts for each control system, which were until now being sourced from Russia

Sasmos, a Bangalore-based manufacturer of wiring harnesses and electronic systems for the aerospace and defence industry, has bagged a contract for the upgradation of Indian battle tanks and armoured recovery vehicles after outbidding several MNCs.

Under this contract, it will be supplying tank electronics including electrical control systems to a defence public sector undertaking (PSU) which will in turn upgrade and supply the battle tanks, including T72 and T90, to the Indian Army. “The upgraded systems will provide upgraded life and longevity in a cost-effective manner,” said Chandrashekar HG, the founder and managing director of Sasmos.

As part of these upgrades, Sasmos will be developing more than 1,200 parts for each control system, which were until now being sourced from Russia.

The upgraded indigenous control system will replace imports resulting in foreign exchange savings of about 40-50 per cent of the total cost. ”This is an area where we did a really good job in terms of completely stopping the imports and established 72 per cent of local components, which has given us full-scale benefits,” Chandrashekhar added.

The pilot runs and trials have already been done for three to four tanks and the project is currently undergoing quality test. The entire product development took nine to ten months and the defence PSU is likely to start using the components from January or March 2022 onwards. The first batch of production is likely to roll out sometime mid-next year.

The company has also been doing market studies to explore global opportunities. While the company expects the size of its Indian project to extend up to 200-300 tanks, the number is expected to go up to 5,000 tanks globally in the next 5 years wherever Russian tanks are currently in use, added Chandrashekhar.

The company will be setting up a subsidiary, Aviratha defence systems, using which the company intends to brand the control systems segment and reach out to global markets.

The company’s revenue for FY21 stood at Rs 500 crore, 90 per cent of which came from exports. However, with the tank electronics project, the domestic revenue share is expected to go up to 20 per cent.