Telangana to set up India’s first centre of excellence for defence

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government is planning to set up India’s first Centre of Excellence (CoE) for defence to develop the ecosystem in the state on the back of an increasing number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Boeing and Airbus, among others, setting up manufacturing centres here, said state Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao.

The state is in talks with several interested parties and has also roped in the central government to set up the CoE which will cater to the entire defence ecosystem in Telangana including small and medium enterprises and start-ups.

Rao was speaking at the inauguration of Tata-Boeing’s defence component manufacturing facility at Adibatla, near Hyderabad on Thursday. Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata was also present at the event.


The facility, spread across 14,000 square metres, will be the sole global producer of fuselages for AH-64 Apache helicopter delivered by Boeing to its global customers including the U.S.

Additionally, Rao requested the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was the chief guest at the inauguration, to consider setting up of defence industrial production corridor, which was announced in the Union Budget.

“Telangana has 10 large defence public sector units, 25 large defence equipment manufacturers and over 4,000 small and medium enterprises along with a large talent pool, making it attractive for the defence industry,” said Rao.