The development comes close on the heels of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence signing a strategic pact last month with Antonic Company of Ukraine for the assembly, manufacture, and maintenance and repair of its platforms in India, both for the commercial and the military market.



Reliance Defence together with Antonov will jointly address various requirements including 50-80 seat passenger aircraft programme of the HAL, in its basic configuration and in all its variants such as transport, maritime patrol and other military roles.



India is said to require over 200 medium lift turbofan aircraft valued at Rs 35,000 crore, which is the backbone of all tactical transport support of the air force, army and para-military forces.