Polish defence major, WB, whose drones gained popularity from the war in Ukraine, has sold its Warmate loitering munitions to the Indian Army

India is a big market and also a big industrial partner for our production, said Piotr Wojciechowski, President-CEO of Polish defence major WB Group outlining long-term investment and presence here as they completed an order from the Indian Army for their Warmate loitering munitions. The company has set up a joint venture in India and is planning investments both for the Indian market and also.

“We are seeing the Indian market from both sides. One as a big market, one of the biggest in the world. Second, we see it as a big industrial partner for our production,” Mr. Wojciechowski said in a conversation with The Hindu. We also want to use the Indian market for developing systems. Indian market can also be a big supplier for different equipment for our production, he said, adding this can include the production of composites, electronics and software.

The Polish major has already set up a joint venture in India, WB Electronics India Pvt. Ltd., with a majority stake with the Indian partner as per rules. The CEO said they want to use the JV to base their production activities. Finding good talent in Poland is a problem, he noted while observing that India has no shortage of resources, has educated people and is a big market.

“We have no obstacles in moving knowledge to India, in building and developing new products. With India, for India,” he stressed referring to India’s Make in India effort and expressing desire to have production here. “For us, in future this is going to be a big advantage.”

Set up in 1997, WB Group today has 20 companies employing 2.5 lakh employees with the parent company being WB electronics. While the company began with communication devices and electronics, its UAVs gained huge success in recent years especially since the war in Ukraine. As per data shown by the company, since 2021 there has been a huge spike in demand for the Warmate and the FlyEye. For instance, from about 2,000 Warmate systems delivered in 2021, it is over 5,000 now. Their systems are compatible with European and NATO standards building interoperability, the CEO noted.

Indian Army procured the Warmate loitering munitions under Emergency Procurement, and has a range of 30km through ground control. “We have received very good feedback from the Indian Army. They are using them in very demanding conditions, different from the conditions we have in Europe,” Mr. Wojciechowski said on the deliveries made. “The general conditions in India will be different, but with the experience of Warmate we can meet the requirements.”

He said they are looking to offer their communication systems including Software Defined Radios, and also the ‘FlyEye’ UAV to India, which he said was one of the best in the world having been tested in the real war and also been employed in large numbers. The range of the Warmate can go upto 100 km through aerial control via a FlyEye drone, company officials said.

On the plans of WB India, the CEO Ashish Sharma said they are investing in infrastructure, tying up with local industry and academia to source components and tap in to the vast pool of skilled engineering talent.

“We have a diversified defence portfolio wherein we intend to manufacture in India for local for not only the domestic requirements but also to support our partners in their global supply chain requirements,” Mr. Sharma said.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, European countries have embarked on a major military modernisation drive significantly scaling up their defence spending. Stating that they are occupied right now in fulfilling the Polish requirements, Mr. Wojciechowski said the European market will be growing very fast over the next 10 years, and Poland would be one of the biggest having allocated about 4-4.5% of its GDP for defence.

Polish market is going to be very demanding, he said adding they also need to focus on exports to sustain their growth in the long term. “In the next few months, we should look at the most prospective markets including India. The production we are going to set up in India is going to help in the larger markets.”

Indian armed forces, especially Indian Army, have undertaken a range of procurements of a range drones, counter drone systems, loitering munitions among other systems in the last few years through the emergency procurement (EP) route. For instance, under EP-4 undertaken between September 2022 to September 2023 the Army concluded over 70 schemes costing nearly ₹11,000 crores while the Indian Air Force has concluded 64 contracts under EP-4 worth around ₹8,137 crore, as reported earlier.

The WB Group has a niche in communication, command, reconnaissance and weapons control systems, various classes of unmanned systems, IT systems and cyber security solutions and fitting-out and modernization of military vehicles. Over 12,000 U.S. and allies vehicles are fitted with Fonet communication systems, which are licence-manufactured by Harris in the U.S., company officials said.

Agencies