Krasny – Persevering to Make a Difference

By Editor 14-Feb-2020

Krasny Defence Technologies Private Limited hitherto to Navy & Coast Guard centric has expanded its services to the Army and Airforce through various collaborations with both Russian and Western entities.Krasny has been appointed as the Authorised representative of JSC Concern Morinformsystem-Agat, a major Russian OEM of Naval systems is set to extend Life Cycle Support for their equipment installed onboard Indian Naval ships and submarines. Diversifying into manufacturing, teaming with the best in the field of electrical and electronics manufacturing is the next initiative by KDT to make a difference in Self Reliance in Maintenance as also indigenous substitution against obsolescence. 

With a quarter of century of excellence in the field of defence equipment maintenance, Krasny Defence Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (formerly Krasny Marine Services Pvt. Ltd.) is expanding its business horizons in India’s defence sector. The company is a three-dimensional services enterprise engaged in rendering technical maintenance and logistic support for the state-of-the-art equipment or systems of the Indian Navy, Naval Aviation and the Indian Coast Guard. Krasny is today a leading ship repair yard for the Indian Coast Guard, successfully undertaking Electrical & Electronic packages, Emergency Dry Dockings and wholesome refits of ICG vessels. Krasny is manned and managed by technocrats of ex-Defence Services, Naval Dockyards and Merchant Marine. Following its unique policy of harnessing the core competence of ex-servicemen and adopting the time-tested HR management principles and practices, the company is progressing on its singular business focus of self-reliance in defence equipment maintenance.

 Krasny has set unparalleled records in refit of ships upholding high quality standards, project management skills, timely contract completion, etc. It has over 40 wholesome refits to its credit, all done on schedule or before.  All these have been achieved without having its own captive infrastructure. This disadvantage is being addressed by tie up with other shipyards along the Western and Eastern Coast. The latest initiative in this direction is formation of an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) with MOC Shipyard Pvt. Ltd. for refits of interceptor boats of Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy. Two refits have already been completed successfully.

The Service Support Portfolio of the company comprises of ship refits & repairs, electronic repairs, outfitting of new ships, turnkey services to OEMs, design support, logistic support (Supply of MIL grade components, Russian origin spares & components, connectors, etc.) and Life Cycle Support for Russian origin systems. Manufacturing is the recently added vertical.  

Established in 1995, Krasny is the first private sector initiative in the field of defence equipment maintenance, when this sector was an exclusive preserve of Defence PSUs and defence establishments. It is also the first company in the country formed under the ‘SEMFEX Scheme’ [Self Employment Scheme for Ex-servicemen] with a business model of “harnessing the unutilized core competence of ex- servicemen” to service the highly technical naval equipment.

With the turnkey refit of Indian Coast Guard Ship Vivek in the Private sector in 1997, a new benchmark was set by Krasny paving the way for refits of Coast Guard ships by SMEs which till then was the preserve of Defence shipyards. In 1998, Krasny created the first Indo-Ukrainian Joint Venture aimed at providing product support for the state of the art ‘Orion family of Gas Turbine Control Systems installed on board 1241RE class of missile boats of the Indian Navy. This JV, Yugsudo Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd. was the first company outside Ukraine to undertake turnkey modernization of Orion control systems on the two indigenously built missile boats, one at Mazagon Docks Ltd. and the other at Goa Shipyard, Goa.

Avrora (India) Marine Systems Pvt. Ltd. and Rosoboronservice (India) Ltd. are the other two Indo-Russian joint venture created by Krasny in pursuit of improving after sales support for Russian origin assets of the Indian Navy.Winds of change began to blow in ‘after sales support from Russia’, ever since more and more enterprises received the authority for direct foreign economic activity in military purpose products (MPP) wherein they no longer need to operate through Rosoboronexport.  JSC Agat, one of the giant “Concerns” with a history of over 70 years is one amongst them.  Presiding over 16 important institutes & plants dealing with cutting edge military technology, JSC Agat is a leader in Fire Control Systems, Combat Information Control Systems and Computer Aided Integrated Ship Management Systems.  Krasny has entered into a partnership agreement with JSC Agat to enhance the quality and content of Life Cycle Support for a large number of systems installed onboard Indian Naval ships and submarines. This is a significant event in Krasny’s chequered history.
More recently, Krasny has been an active participant in all the “Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) sponsored, Military – Industrial Conferences (MIC) held in Delhi, Chennai and Moscow, being one amongst the firms identified and approved for collaboration with Russian OEMs, to progress towards enabling the Russian OEMs in enhancing after sales service and exploring joint manufacturing of spares and parts.
Over the past five years, Krasny has been supporting the Indian Army for the upkeep of its Tunguska Systems (ex-Russian Federation) besides offering Indigenous solutions for obsolescence for a few other systems. Parallelly, the company has also been undertaking rate repair contracts with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for avionics of MIG series aircraft.

Encouraged by the “Make in India” initiative of the Govt, Krasny has resolved to “Start-up” a new vertical for design and manufacturing, having been a ‘Technical Service Provider’ for the Indian Armed Forces for 25 years, laterally inducting an experienced Designer cum Entrepreneur to kick start its new vertical. The product range encompass Rectifiers for ship’s DC supply, Frequency Converters, Control Panels, Battery Chargers, Helo Starting Rectifiers, IGBT based DC to DC converters, UPS, Auto Changeover Switches etc.

Krasny has always looked for products which well help the men in uniform to reduce the load on maintenance of ship systems. One recent agreement with Russian LLC, Kebo Cavitant is a step in this direction. Kebo Cavitant has a portfolio of four products of next generation cleaning agents. Cavitant Express SA. Kevo Cavitant Express S1(Liquid), Express KO for removal of rust and oxides and Kevo Cavitant Express SK which is an innovative agent for paint and varnish removal. The major competitive edge of all products are there is no interaction with the surface of metal and is cheaper than traditional method.