India, France join hands to co-produce advanced air-to-surface Hammer missiles

India and France will jointly produce the advanced air-to-surface missile, Hammer, in India. This was announced by Indian public sector undertaking, Bharat Electronics Limited (BHEL) and French manufacturer, Safran, at the ongoing Aero India 2025 in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Hammer is an all-weather smart air-to-surface weapon with an extended stand-off capacity having a range of 70 km.

“Hammer sets new standards in Close Air Support missions as well as deep strike missions with its family of warheads and guidance kits,” Safran’s website claims.

Other features of the missile include fire and forget capability, insensitivity to GNSS denied environments and simultaneous multi-target attack capability.

Hammer is also said to be compatible with different standard bomb bodies like 125, 250, 500 and 1,000 kg.

Autonomous and insensitive to jamming, this weapon system can be launched from low altitude, over rough terrain.

The missile could be configured for use on western platforms in service with India such as the Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft and the Rafale and Mirage 2000 multirole fighters. There is also the possibility of it being adapted for other aircraft like the Russian Su-30.

The co-production of the Hammer missile was among several collaborations revealed at CEOs Roundtable during Aero India, which was also attended b Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

A statement issued by the Defence Ministry on Tuesday said that the roundtable received an unprecedented response with the participation of 116 global CEOs. Many foreign as well as Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) made announcements regarding their plans for investments, collaborations and setting-up of development centres and centres of excellence.

Bharat Forge announced also its plan for the complete manufacturing of landing gear for certain commercial aircrafts in the country.