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India’s Elcome Marine Eyes Fivefold Boost | Defense News | defensenews.com

Elcome Marine Services, India’s only private naval systems integration company, aims to boost revenue fivefold over the next five years as warship demands rise for the Indian Navy and Coast Guard.


Established in 1978, Mumbai-based Elcome Marine is India’s only small-sector company that integrates navigation, communication, surveillance and weapon systems for ships and submarines. The company’s revenue is $20 million, so a fivefold boost would bring it to $100 million by 2017.

In June 2010, Elcome Marine and Orbit of Israel, serving as subcontractors to state-owned Bharat Electronics, won a $20 million order to provide 154 satellite communication systems to the Indian Navy. The company has already installed 35 percent of the systems and the rest will be completed by 2014.


Elcome Marine with technology partner Orbit is delivering and installing very-small-aperture-terminal antennas for the Indian Navy. In a first for an Indian company, Elcome Marine has ventured into a large-scale project involving the installation and maintenance of radio frequency systems, along with the installation of networked operations and video conferencing for the satellite communication project.


In addition, Elcome is supplying radars and inertial navigation systems for the country’s submarine fleet.


“We are a pioneer in the private sector in the field of customized hardware and software solutions,” said Shyam Kumar Singh, retired Indian Navy captain and vice president (Defence) of Elcome Marine.


He said Elcome is the only private company that creates turnkey communications solutions for the Indian Navy. “With in-house capability for design of interface solutions, we make our partners very competitive providing an edge of 15 to 20 percent in costs, and therefore we win projects.”


The company plans to enter the Indian defense offset market and participate in large defense programs in the category called “Buy and Make (Indian).” That means the specific program will be designed, developed and produced only by Indian defense companies — both private and state-owned — and overseas defense companies will not be allowed to bid.


“We have excellent infrastructure with waterfront support on Indian major ports and with our in-house [research-and-development] capability for system integration, we are capable [of carrying] out any naval offset project,” Singh said.


Grewal listed some of the company’s research and development initiatives.


“Design of customized solutions for integrating incompatible equipment into coherent systems is our niche area. Our research-and development efforts are directed toward embedded designs, as well as graphical user interface-based user-friendly systems.”


The company was selected last year as an offset partner by Kangnam shipyard in South Korea for providing an integrated bridge system for India’s mine countermeasure vessel project.


As part of the expansion plan, Elcome Marine is considering teaming agreements with overseas contractors for large naval projects, to include technology transfer tie-ups in naval hardware subsystems, full software system capability and life-cycle support for naval electronics systems.


In addition to Orbit, the company has technical support agreements with Raytheon Anschutz of Germany for all Raytheon Anschutz navigation equipment and navigation radars; TRANSAS of Ireland for electronic chart display systems and navigation simulators; Saab Transponder Tech of Sweden for automated information systems; HITT of the Netherlands for maritime surveillance; AZDEC, U.K., for infrared communication; CODAN of Australia for satellite and high-frequency transceivers; Nautel of Canada for nondirectional beacons and transmitter systems; Thrane & Thrane of Denmark for communication solutions; and Norris of Germany for machinery control systems.


“We want to emerge as the premier offset partner for defense manufacturers of repute and achieve a turnover of $100 million by 2015 with dedicated effort for indigenous products,” Grewal said.


The other major projects in the pipeline include integrated platform management systems for battle damage control, propulsion control, power management and resolution of navigational issues. Grewal said smaller Indian operations such as Elcome Marine can do much better if the Indian Defence Ministry provides a level playing field against state-owned companies, foreign companies and large private companies.


Most smaller Indian companies face challenges in picking up multiple orders because of higher corporate borrowing in India, including interest rates that only large companies can afford. The government does not have any defense financing schemes.


Grewal claims that Elcome Marine is self-funded and no foreign company owns any equity. However, the company is open to joint ventures to participate in specific defense projects.


Some of the homemade products the company is manufacturing for the Indian Navy and Coast Guard include sound-powered telephones, weather-sensor and flood alarm systems, and a universal navigation system.


With headquarters in Mumbai, the waterfront support systems are based in Mumbai, Kolkata, Vizag, Chennai, Port Blair, Kochi, Goa and Jamnagar.
Elcome Marine was founded by master mariners. Its focus includes inertial navigation equipment, specif-ically gyros; integrated bridge systems; integrated machinery control systems; echo sounders; required ship safety equipment; and satellite communication and TV systems.


“We certainly feel that we have not achieved our full potential as an organization,” Grewal said. “We have vast technical knowledge, we have a very good track record in terms of engineering and delivering working systems, and the other thing that we have is an incredible footprint.


“We have experienced technical people at almost every city where there is an Indian naval base, which is an infrastructure and capability unmatched in India,” he said. “So, definitely there is a lot of room for growth and as we look at the growth opportunities we are open to all kinds of relationships in order to help us achieve our full potential.”