Indian Defence Review

India of the 21st Century is the world’s most sought after defence market, considering that it intends to spend nearly Rs 9 lakh crore or $150 billion in arms purchases over the next 15 years. That’s a whopping Rs 60,000 crore or $10 billion defence capital expenditure annually.

No wonder India today stands at the top of the list of nations that imports arms to meet the needs of its armed forces, a status bestowed upon it by the Stockholm-based SIPRI think tank for two consecutive years now based on its spends over the last eight years.

While this is the reality, Indian Ministry of Defence has been emphasising on the need for self-reliance in arms for the armed forces to meet future threats and the need to focus on future technologies that really matter in a conflict situation, which is not far to wish away and could be triggered by any provocative action by forces inimical to India.

Against this background comes the Indian industry effort in the defence sector, which was much protected for decades being the exclusive domain of the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factories, but has been opened up for the private sector by the government since the beginning of this century.

Think Global, Act Local

One such effort is that of MKU, an Indian private sector industry with Kanpur as its headquarters and having presence in over 100 countries overseas, particularly in West Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Set up in 1985 aiming to become a top notch defence solution firm, in over 25 years since, MKU has pioneered the field of producing protection and armouring in the country and has during the period made forays into other business avenues such as aviation aerodynamics and technology.

With a vision “To be a leading defense solution provider within the protection & surveillance domain “ all MKU products are multi role and multi user adaptable with users being personnel involved in law enforcement, peace keeping operations, border protection, littoral marine patrolling, maritime & shipping operations, oil & gas industries, to name a few.

At MKU a very selective, ethical and discreet sales policy is rigorously enforced in ratifying the eligibility of a customer. Strict vigil is maintained in assessing the credentials of the ultimate recipient of the goods and the nature of their deployment vis-a-vis ongoing conflicts and borderline differentiation between conflicting parties. MKU follows and constantly updates itself with national policy on sales of its products keeping in view the International, US, UN as well as European sanctions on various countries who might happen to be the purchasers of its products. To this effect a mandatory End User Certificate from each of the purchaser is demanded to ensure that products reach safe & responsible hands and are used for the purpose and intent in cohesion with its overall vision and mission.

All of this were done with just a single-minded focus: To enable the armed forces around the world in general and India in particular to achieve their military and security objectives much more safely and efficiently than before, through sustainable, high performance products. Another objective was to transform India into a self-reliance nation in the technologies that MKU took upon itself to design, develop and produce.

Tactical Protection Edge

Survival in today’s high-tech battlefield with unpredictable environment is the first basic need for security forces to achieve what they set themselves out for in any operation. That’s where MKU can step in for any armed force, globally.

MKU has a vast repository of solutions and COTS (Commercially off the shelf ) products, almost over 1000 solutions for 100+ known threats and has supplied to over 230 forces spread across 100+ countries globally. Till date MKU has provided protection to over 1.5 million soldiers and armoured land-air-sea vehicles in excess of 1500.

On offer from the MKU stable today are:

• Personal protection equipment such as Helmets (Aralyte, Advanced Combat, PASGT, Paratrooper, Mine Clearance and Tank Crew) , Body Armour (Ergo, Multi-Utility Vest, Tactical Military Over-Vest, Tactical Police Over-Vest, Front Opening Over-Vest, Concealable Vest, Floatable Over-Vest), Armor Plates (Polyshield, Polyshield+, Cerazone, Cerazone+), Ballistic Shields, De-mining Suits and Bomb Blankets for the diverse needs of armies, para-military and police forces.
• Vehicle protection offerings include lightweight precision-cut composite panels and kits, armoring and integration solutions for Land, Air and Sea platforms.
• Night Vision combat enablers for modern scenarios and during special operations include devices that provide the advantage of seeing in the dark, manoeuvre freely and to attack the intended target at night and during reduced visibility.

Thus, MKU has enough products in its stable to be a preferred partner for integration of a modern soldier’s systems and its sub-systems.

MKU’s keen understanding of the military, the battlefield and special operation environments coupled with technological capabilities and global reach helps it to harness newer technologies to produce and identify advanced equipment and gear for the defence and security forces.

Global Presence

MKU’s infrastructure includes two units in India at Malwan and Rooma near Kanpur and one unit at Sittensen in Germany used as an offshore production and integration facility. Together, the three units cover about 200,000 square feet/18,500 square metres in area and house state-of-the-art machinery and equipment.

From being a technology-enabled company, MKU has graduated to become a technology driven company. Its dedicated design and development centres for its Armor division at Kanpur (India) and Sittensen (Germany) constantly evolve innovative solutions for newer evolving ballistic threats. The German unit also has an in-house ballistic testing facility, which allows MKU to better respond to unique customer demands and also evolve improved ballistic solutions.

MKU’s exposure and understanding of the vast and diverse international markets and global defence and security establishments, environment and applications, coupled with its strong technical and manufacturing capabilities gives it the capacity, capability and ability to meet the customers’ expectations in its products.

Quality First

Heavy duty moulding presses and in-house captive power plants enable the production facilities to operate un-interrupted to produce the highest quality personal protection equipment. The 12 expansive daylight presses produce the some of the largest armour panels available. High precision water jet cutter further cuts and profiles these armour panels for easy retrofitting onto platforms. The CAD/CAM manufacturing process used to produce armouring solutions unfailingly delivers armouring kits to meet stringent specifications of the end-user.

Timely, cost-effective and qualitative delivery of products is what MKU strives for and stands by. At MKU, quality can be measured on the basis of performance, safety, reliability, comfort and cost effectiveness. At MKU’s work place, in-house auditors carry out quality checks at every stage — from design to production and integration — to eradicate any pitfalls that might result in spurious products or costly delays.

The finished product also undergoes a final and thorough quality check to ensure compliance with the stringent norms and parameters. Substandard parts or material never see the light of day and are filtered out at every step. MKU ensures that every member of the supply chain meets the laid down and mandatory quality standards.

The production team ensures continuous process improvements with regard to standards and efficiency, which leads to higher productivity. It constantly looks for ways of increasing efficiency through materials, tools and processes.

All products from MKU are tested and certified as conforming to the highest level of performance and compliance by the leading certification agencies across the world.

Its processes and systems are certified as conforming to Netherlands’ DNV standards of AS 9100 for ‘Development and Provision of Armour solutions for Marine Vessels, Aircraft/Helicopters, Land Vehicles and other Stationery Objects like Guard/Sentry Room and Containers’ and ISO 9001:2008 for ‘Design, Development, Manufacture and Supply of Anti-Ballistic Products; Jackets and Vest, Armour Plates, Helmets, De-mining Suits, Bomb Blankets, Composite Ballistic Panels, Ballistic Shields, Light Weight Armour Solutions for Marine Vessels, Aircraft and Land Vehicles’.

Harnessing Technology

At MKU, there is a common belief that there should be no compromise with safety. For, a soldier’s life is the most precious asset at the war front and it is the foot on the ground that accomplishes missions and establishes victory. A soldier using an MKU product can brave odds and the harsh battlefield conditions with faith in his capabilities and that’s what MKU tries to achieve in its products. That trust in MKU equipment is what drives a deep sense of responsibility in every employee of the company and while they are at work, to provide the most advanced, unfailing ballistic protection so that the soldier who using them returns safe and sound from the war zone with a sense of victory and accomplishment.

Every product that is delivered to the customer by MKU lives up to what the company’s Director set out to achieve in the ‘Quality Policy’: “It is our endeavour to promote and maintain an effective quality system in order to be leaders in our field. Our aim is to achieve customer satisfaction and zero customer complaints by way of continual improvement in manufacturing world class ballistic products.”