Crown Group Defence Undertakes MRO Activities Of Indian Navy Ships, Submarines & Aviation Assets

Crown Group Defence successfully handled MRO job for India's only aircraft carrier 'INS Vikramaditya', amphibious warship 'INS Jalashwa' and various other Marine, Aerospace and Avionics projects

1. ? ? ?Tell us about Crown Group Defence & its Defence Companies
Crown Group Defence started with a vision to support the Indian defence forces in the maintenance of high-value equipment supplied by international OEMs by setting up maintenance and repair facilities in collaboration with the OEMs. With active businesses in Defence Engineering for over 40 years, Crown Group Defence has now established itself as one of the most reliable players in the MRO sector. We are now scaling up our defence businesses in alignment with the Atmanaribhar Bharat vision as a strategic partner with OEMs to support the defence forces through our various divisions.
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The Group has established three verticals to service the needs of Operational Readiness of the Indian defence sector through its group companies, which are:
1. 'Dynatron Services Private Limited' (Dynatron) and 'OSK India Private Limited' (OIPL) for Marine Engineering
2.‘Aviatech Enterprises Private Limited' (Aviatech) and 'Zealtek Enterprises Private Limited' (Zealtek) for Aerospace and Avionics
3.‘C1 India Private Limited' for Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence and Land forces
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2. ? ? ?What all services you offer to the Indian Navy
Crown Group Defence's core philosophy is to deliver on the "Make in India" vision by partnering with global OEMs to induct the latest technologies providing manufacturing and MRO services for critical equipment in use by Indian defence forces. We have created local MRO workshops that reduce the time required for critical support and increase the availability of mission-critical equipment.

Dynatron Services, which has been serving the Indian Navy & Coast Guard for more than four decades, provides ship repair, general engineering, ship modernization, ship refits, marketing & after-sales support for mechanical & electronic systems. Apart from other projects, we were supporting MRO activities for the Indian Navy's only amphibious warship from the United States, INS Jalashwa, and we are also involved in providing support to India's only aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, Naval Warships, Submarines & Aircrafts.

Dynatron Services has sole authorization for repairs and maintenance of Gearboxes & thrusters from ZF Marine (Germany) & exclusive partnership with Kubota engines Japan coupled with Mase Generators, Italy, for providing MRO services to the Indian Navy.
OSK India has a state-of-the-art electronics repair facility in Mumbai specializing in the repair of electronic modules and weapon systems of international origin. We have recently repaired critical weapon equipment for the Indian Navy and currently working on the next order.

Aviatech specializes in Defence Aerospace MRO and Aviation Engineering services, including engineering design, Manufacturing, Product development & Production for Indigenisation. Aviatech and Zealtek are currently providing maintenance support and repairs for major Naval Aviation assets, including repair of LRUs and calibration of UAVs for the Indian Navy.
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3. What all facilities have Crown Group Defence set up in India?
Crown Group Defence has set up five world-class facilities & workshops pan India for taking on specialized activities based on customer requirements at each location. We have one of the largest facilities in Karwar, which is Asia's biggest Defence Naval Base, to take on mechanical and electro-mechanical repairs primarily for the Indian Navy. In Goa, we have set up two facilities catering to Defence Aerospace MRO and Avionics repairs, including a NABL, an accredited calibration laboratory.

We have recently set up an electronics facility in Mumbai where we are doing repairs to complex weapon equipment, PCBs and electronic modules.

In addition, we have two ship repair workshops in Chennai and Vizag with satellite offices in Cochin, Port Blair, Calcutta, Andaman & Nicobar. Our corporate office is in Delhi, which coordinates and provides strategic decision support to our customers.
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4. How Crown Group is contributing to making India' Aatmanirbhar' in defence MRO & Manufacturing
?Over the years, India has procured multiple military assets from foreign OEMs that are mission-critical and important for being battle ready. Maintaining these defence equipment supplied by foreign OEMs is an expensive and time-consuming affair as these have to be mostly sent overseas for repairs. Crown Group Defence is one of the only organized and fully equipped players with MRO facilities on both the western and eastern coasts and support offices across the coastal cities in India.

Leading the way in making India self-reliant in defence MRO manufacturing, Crown Group Defence has also opened its MRO & manufacturing facilities to international companies to partner and leverage its facilities and capabilities for setting up MRO & manufacturing base in the country, keeping abreast with the 'Make in India' strategy, thereby leading to reduced timeframes for repair and enhanced operational availability of assets.

We also have a 'Make in India Vertical' within the Group to identify upcoming critical equipment requirements of the Armed Forces and focus on fulfilling these requirements through Indigenisation under the 'Make in India' program.
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5. Why have the International Defence OEMs chosen Crown Group Defence to partner in India
Global OEMs that are looking for organized players to help them maintain & service their equipment, providing quality service to their customers in India, find it easy to partner with Crown Group. This is because of the professional team with experienced personnel from defence, our world-class facilities & capabilities along with ongoing robust partnerships with some of the major international Defence OEMs for MRO of Indian naval marine and aviation assets. All these together put Crown Group Defence in a strong position to support any foreign company in setting up their manufacturing/MRO base in India and taking forward the vision under Make in India.

For International OEMs, it is much more economical to partner with local players who already have facilities and understand the local business environment.

We are extremely quality conscious; we deliver on time and have received several commendations from both the customers and international OEMs.

Appreciation of the outstanding MRO services and on-time delivery of critical projects has helped the Group secure a good deal of MRO contracts from the Indian Armed Forces, including the Coast Guard.
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6. Does Crown Group Defence plan to indigenously manufacture Defence components & equipment in India?
Yes, we are working towards establishing indigenous manufacturing facilities for components and spares that have higher volumes or are categorized as consumables. ?
Keeping with Govt's focus on promoting self-reliance in defence manufacturing and positioning India as an exporter of military hardware, Crown Group's focus is on indigenization through both ties up with international OEMs and in-house research and development.

Crown Group is authorized to manufacture landing gear spares for fighter jets. Group is currently working on manufacturing and cloning PCBs for weapon systems through its Mumbai facilities.

In a drive to support the indigenization of equipment for Indian Naval Ships and Submarines, Crown Group has tied up with WILO Pumps, one of the world's leading premium providers of pumps & pump systems and Meru Pumps based out of Ahmedabad, helping them customize their products to defence specifications.

We are focused on engaging with academia across India to bring out technologically advanced solutions that will strengthen & modernize the Indian Defence sector and have tied up with Amrita University to promote Defence R&D. We are also in advance talks for collaboration with IITs & other reputed Universities for various Defence projects.
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?7. Is Crown Group also into export of Defence equipment
?Crown Group has an export division under the name of Crown Corporation. The Group has exported Indian manufactured Submarine batteries and is authorized to export torpedo, missile, aircraft batteries and battery management systems in addition to indigenized multi-functional displays for aircraft.

Crown Group has been participating in National and International Defence Fares/Exhibitions showcasing these products to grow the export business.
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8. What are your views on the steps taken by the Indian Govt. to make India self-reliant in Defence MRO? Do you think India is on the right track to becoming a Defence MRO hub?
Govt of India's initiative in making Indian defence forces MRO self-reliant is indeed laudable. "Make in India" thrust will pay rich dividends in times to come. It is also a very good opportunity for MSMEs to grow. To conclude, India is on the right track to becoming a defence MRO hub.
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9. What are your future expansion/growth plans
?Crown Group Defence plans to become the most sought-after Indian company for the global OEMs to partner in India for indigenization and Make in India plans of our defence forces. With an experienced workforce having decades of experience and infrastructure facilities available in terms of workshops in several major locations, access to shipyards, airport infrastructure, and Centres of Excellence for all three services, Crown Group is already the preferred partner of choice for global OEMs.

The thrust of Crown Group Defence is to build up on all three fronts, Marine, Aviation and Land Systems. Our Marine Engineering division has been strong serving the Indian defence for more than 40 years. The experience, trained manpower, and infrastructure are already existing, and that's where the organization's thrust is. We expect our marine sector to be the biggest in our Group, led by Cmde Rakesh Anand (Ex-Chairman and MD, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders), as we look to acquire docking facilities on the Western Coastline. Our aviation company Aviatech Enterprises is going to expand much faster as aviation orders in the pipeline materialize. Regarding Army systems our associate company is supporting the tank production in India and organizing the modernization and indigenization of critical components as well as setting up a Centre of Excellence to ensure the subcontractors produce quality components for our armoured vehicles.

Crown Group's focus is on indigenization of a wide range of Defence engineering products, setting up Manufacturing facilities under the 'Make in India' programme to undertake licenced production of regularly required spares by the Indian Navy, and setting up Fleet support centres at all major Naval stations to extend value-added services to the Indian Navy including services of Specialists from OEMs.
We also plan to strengthen our export business.

Crown Group Defence, dedicated to supporting India in its 'Make in India' & 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat' journey, is focused on engaging with academia across India to bring out technologically advanced solutions that will strengthen & modernize the Indian Defence sector.