Hawking Defence Services signs MoU with Australian UAV Technologies

Chennai: Unmanned Systems startup Hawking Defence Services on Tuesday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Australian UAV Technologies, a UAV and electronics company based out of New South Wales, Australia to establish a joint venture company which would enable technology transfer, joint research and development and licensed manufacturing of unmanned systems between these two entities.

"This MOU is the first step in establishing a strong and reliable unmanned systems solution provider and manufacturer for global requirements," the company said in a statement.

The Chennai-based tech startup said the venture would help the organizations to make advances in unmanned technologies and provide cost-effective solutions and services to Indian defence services both within India and abroad thereby boosting defence exports from India.


"Timely investments into advanced Research and Development of cutting-edge defence products through investments into critical areas such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and chip development will enable India to become an epicentre for Advanced Research thereby increasing its global share of defence exports," Vijayanarayanan Rapalli, the Managing Director of Hawking Defence Services said.

The MOU was signed at the Austrade office in the Australian Consulate in Chennai and the company claims that it is probably the first between defence industry companies since the initial initiatives of the Australia-India Free Trade Agreement came into effect. The MOU was signed by Rajeev Koundinya, CEO Hawking Defence and Ken Taylor, Managing Director of Australian UAV Technologies.