BENGALURU: The Adani group’s foray into India’s military industrial complex will concentrate primarily on aeronautics and the group is drawing up a plan to set up facilities for the manufacture of jet fighters and unmanned aerial vehicles ( UAV ) besides setting up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hub for aircraft at its 200-acre land bank in Mundra, a top executive handling the new venture of the Ahmedabad-based company told ET.“We have spent the last 12 months conceptualizing and have decided to concentrate on one sector – aerospace. We want to create a tangible presence here. We want to set up a complete hub spread over 200 acres and an airbase that can be used for all types of aircraft,” the executive said.Sharing details of its defence venture – the first public announcement was made in March last year in Goa – Adani officials said the plan was to gain expertise in only the aeronautical sector of the defence market in the initial years rather than spreading itself thin targeting areas like land systems and warship production.The group’s defence venture is centred on a planned aviation hub at Mundra, spread around the existing air strip qualified as an alternate landing site for military aircraft operating in the region. It has also made its debut at India’s premier air show, AeroIndia with its joint venture company Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India Limited. A master plan of the aviation hub shows a 100-acre area earmarked to set up a fighter jet production line and 50 acres each for a UAV line and a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility.“The plans are being worked but we would be creating a unique facility that could be leased out to any company that wishes to set up a fighter jet line. This could be an Indian company and its foreign partner. They would have a complete ecosystem available for the project,” the executive said. India is in the process of identifying a foreign partner for a multibillion dollar project to manufacture a new line of single engine fighter aircraft. The plan is to produce close to 200 jets in India in collaboration with a private sector company to give a boost to the domestic aeronautical manufacturing industry.Adani’s joint venture company with Israel’s Elbit also responded in September to a request for information by the Indian defence ministry for a new fleet of medium weight unmanned aerial vehicles. India requires close to 200 new UAVs for the three services to meet an increasing demand for surveillance platforms. A top executive said that the Hermes 900 that is on offer can also be upgraded into a combat platform for future requirements of the Indian armed forces.“We have a long term joint venture for the project that will cater for all upcoming requirements here. This is in line with the government’s policy on Make in India,” the executive said. A formal tender for the UAV requirement is expected to come out by next month.