BEL-Rolta consortium bags Rs 50,000 cr BMS project

Bengaluru, Feb 26: In a significant development, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has chosen Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Rolta India Limited, a leading provider of innovative IT solutions, as the exclusive consortium (development agency) for the Battlefield Management System (BMS).

The BMS project is worth over Rs 50,000 crore and has been categorised as a ‘Make programme' under the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP).

BEL claims that the BMS project will be one of the largest solutions to be indigenously manufactured for the Indian defence.
P C Jain, Director (Marketing), BEL, said that the company's proactive investments in BMS have finally paid rich dividends.

"The consortium is fully geared up to take on the challenge of development of the BMS for our defence forces. We also aim to maximize the indigenous content through in-house development of various sub-systems," he said.

To optimise ops effectiveness of tactical units

BMS is a situational awareness and visualisation system that aims to optimise the operational effectiveness of tactical units. BEL says that the project is meant to deliver Command and Control capabilities to the fighting echelons, operating at the forward edge of the Tactical Battle Area at the Battalion and Combat Group levels.

BEL has been proactively working on battlefield management systems. "We have established the test bed of BMS for continuous evaluation and implementation of user requirements. Having worked on several Tactical Command, Control, Communications & Intelligence (Tac C3I) systems of the Indian Army, in association with DRDO, we have the unique capability of developing and integrating Tac C3I systems and will lead the consortium," a BEL spokesperson said.

The role of Rolta

As a part of the consortium, Rolta will execute its role and responsibility in areas of BMS application software development and applicable licensing, GIS software and GIS data services.

Rolta will also jointly work with BEL for manufacturing subsystems for the soldier system, the overall system design, integration, installation, commissioning and maintenance of the BMS solution.

Rolta has also invested significantly in BMS technologies indigenously and has over the years delivered cutting edge Command, Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C2ISR) systems, to the Indian Military.

Deployed across the country, military commanders use Rolta Technology as a force-multiplier.

According to K K Singh, CMD, Rolta India Limited, the BMS project is one huge opportunity to take the ‘Make in India' project for the armed forces.

"The selection of Rolta is a strong vindication of our strategy to upfront invest in and build word-class IP indigenously. This IP has been indigenously developed by leveraging our deep domain knowledge of C2ISR (Command, Control, Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) and is already in wide use across various formations of the Indian Army," Singh said.

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