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JSW Group's partnership with Shield AI to give a major push to India's military drone capabilities

JSW Group partners with US-based Shield AI to manufacture advanced V-BAT drones in India, enhancing indigenous defence capabilities and providing the Indian Armed Forces with cutting-edge unmanned aerial systems and support services

In a major boost to India's defence capabilities, JSW Group has partnered with US-based defence tech company Shield AI to manufacture unmanned aerial system (UAS).

The group has entered into a partnership through its arm JSW Defence Pvt Ltd "to indigenise and manufacture Shield AI's V-BAT, a Group 3 Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)."

The V-BAT is a fixed-wing, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), long-endurance intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform, currently deployed by multiple armed forces around the world, including the US Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs).

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"Our collaboration with Shield AI is in keeping with our commitment to induct mission-critical technologies for deployment by the Indian armed forces and play an integral role in indigenising defence technology in India. Through this partnership, we will be able to supply indigenous V-BATs at scale, provide flight operator training, and end-to-end maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) services to the Indian Armed Forces," Parth Jindal of JSW Group said.

This collaboration marks a significant step in boosting India's defence capabilities by bringing world-class UAS technology to the country, JSW Group added.

“Shield AI has been an early mover on investing deeply in India, in line with both governments’ desires for a closely integrated defence supply chain between the US and India. This partnership with JSW has been crafted over a multi-year period to transform the depth, scale and scope of India’s indigenous capabilities in the field of military unmanned systems. We look forward to doing a lot more with our partners in India,” Sarjan Shah, Shield AI’s MD for India, said.

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