Cobham, a UK company that manufactures communications equipment for the defence and aerospace industries a field known as avoinics), has signed a "multi-year, multi-million dollar" engineering and R&D services contract with Indian provider HCL Technologies.
HCL Technologies said it will deliver a range of engineering and R&D services – including end-to-end product engineering, design-to-prototype and value engineering – as well as IT services.
"This engagement will allow our dedicated team of engineers to develop cutting edge solutions that help us to meet customer needs in a number of fields," said Tom Garvey, vice president of operations at Cobham's Avionics and Surveillance Division. "We expect that this relationship with HCL Technologies will support our agility and further boost growth."
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In the first half of 2012, Cobham reported revenue of £843 million, down 5% from the first half of 2011. Its trading profit also fell 5%, down to £158 million. In May, it had acquired satellite communications company Thrane & Thrane for £275 million.
HCL claims to have the largest avionics practice in India, with "7000 person-years of experience in avionics specific programming languages, methodologies, tools, operating systems, compilers and standards". It says it was the first Indian IT supplier to achieve AS 9100 certification – a quality standard for the aerospace sector.
