On May 15, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu laid the foundation stones for a range of strategic aerospace and defense projects in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
These include a Core Integration and Flight-Testing Center at Puttaparthi to fast-track the development of Fifth-Generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and other future indigenous platforms, as well as the Naval Systems Manufacturing Facility at T Sirasapalli village near Visakhapatnam to meet the Indian defense forces’ requirement for advanced underwater weapon and naval combat systems.
In addition, five drone manufacturing and technology companies to be set up at Drone City in Orvakal were virtually inaugurated.
According to Singh, Andhra Pradesh is set to emerge as a major hub of aerospace and defense production.
Andhra Pradesh has joined Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh in setting up defense production corridors, with preferential tax and excise rates that are intended to attract public and private companies to set up research and development and production units in their tax jurisdictions.
