Surging Defense Spending, need to tighten border security and introduction of 100 percent FDI in Defense sector would spur India’s night vision device market, predicts 6Wresearch. Rising terrorist activities, border intrusion from Northern, Western and Eastern borders, civil unrest, increasing defense spending and growing localization of defense equipment have led for the growth of Night Vision Devices (NVDs) in India, the research states.
After the introduction of the Government’s “Make in India” campaign in 2014, the defense sector witnessed entry of various international players. According to 6Wresearch, India Night Vision Device (NVD) market is forecast to reach $215 million by 2022. In 2016, Indian government eased FDI limit in defense sector from 49 per cent to 100 per cent, which is expected to significantly boost domestic manufacturing of various equipment, including night vision devices in the coming years. Additionally, domestic companies are collaborating with foreign counterparts for manufacturing state-of-the-art NVDs for Indian armed forces.
According to Prijo Samuel, Assistant Manager, Research and Consulting, 6Wresearch, “In India, NVDs are widely deployed in border security and surveillance segments, especially in regions such as northern, western and north-eastern. The Government has earmarked nearly $12.9 billion for tri-services in defense budget 2016-17, which in turn is expected to drive the purchase of next-generation NVDs”, Samuel further added.
“Indian government is set to invest about $80-100 billion in next 5-7 years for modernizing armed forces with new defense equipment and to replace obsolete ones,” Also, the Indian army is gradually raising 17th Mountain Strike Corps for guarding the North-Eastern frontiers, where 90 units have been raised out of the 250 sanctioned. Rest of the units are anticipated to be raised by 2021, which would drive the demand for NVDs through the forecast period,” Akash Shukla, Research Analyst, Research and Consulting, 6Wresearch said.
“Presently, fixed-mounted NVDs accounted for highest revenue share owing to several defense upgrade projects including modernization of combat aircraft with next-generation avionics and night vision systems,” Akash concluded.
The key players in India’s night vision device market are – Bharat Electronics, Elbit Systems and Thales. India NVD market is highly consolidated, where the above mentioned players have captured a major share.