Tata Power signs deal with Honeywell to build defence navigator in India

Mumbai: Honeywell Aerospace on Monday said it has signed a licensing agreement with Tata Power Co. Ltd's strategic engineering division (SED), enabling it to produce Honeywell's Tactical Advanced Land Inertial Navigator, or "TALIN", in India. It did not disclose the financial details.

This Honeywell-patented technology enables vehicles and artillery to navigate precisely, even where global positioning system (GPS) satellite guidance is not available, to increase troop safety and maximize mission success.

Aligning with the Indian government's objective of organically growing its defence industry and the call for Make in India, Honeywell will licence the design, hardware and expertise to assemble, test and, in the future, build the production kits for TALIN to Tata Power SED, Honeywell said in a statement.

TALIN is a highly accurate, shock-stabilized position and pointing inertial navigation system designed for use on a wide range of military and commercial platforms. It provides users with extremely precise attitude and position awareness with or without the use of GPS.

"Our strategic agreement with Honeywell supports Tata Power SED's commitment to the Make in India initiative-a priority for India's new government," said Rahul Chaudhry, chief executive officer at Tata Power SED.

"We are proud to have completed this technology-sharing arrangement, which will offer the Indian armed forces a state-of-the-art inertial navigation technology, made in India and with local product support. This agreement sets the standard for locally produced defense technologies to sustain India's military growth and mission success over the coming years," he said.

The initial efforts will begin in 2015 for TALIN 2000, with production and manufacturing of the system components expected by 2016. At this time, the agreement will also be extended to cover Honeywell's TALIN 3000, 4000 and 5000 products, which offer varying capabilities to suit a wide range of operational requirements, the company said in a statement.

"TALIN represents the latest in GPS-free navigation and positioning technology, designed to improve asset safety and ultimately mission success," said Arijit Ghosh, president-India, Honeywell Aerospace.

At 1.07pm, Honeywell Automation India Ltd rose 7.5% to Rs.5,637.50, while Tata Power was trading at Rs.83.70, down 0.7% from its previous close. India's benchmark stock index Sensex gained 0.16% to 26,668.92 points.

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