Telephonics deal to expand work in India

Telephonics Corp. of Farmingdale has signed an agreement with an India conglomerate to create aerospace surveillance and friend-or-foe radar systems for the Indian military, the companies said.

Telephonics will also make air traffic management systems for use in India by commercial air transit systems, and for the government's homeland security agencies.

Telephonics, with about 1,400 workers, has an electronics systems plant in Huntington. It specializes in airborne maritime surveillance radar and aircraft intercommunication management systems.

The partner is Mahindra & Mahindra, a $12.5-billion multinational corporate group based in Mumbai, with more than 137,000 workers in 100 countries. It is India's major producer of utility vehicles and trucks.

"Telephonics is an acknowledged leader in the field and will allow us to achieve our ambition to become a leading systems integrator for defense applications," Brig. Khutub Hai, chief executive of the Mahindra Defence Systems division, said in a Thursday news release.

Telephonics already has a relationship with the Indian military, supplying airborne communications for its Boeing P-8I, a military variant of the 737, used for anti-sub and anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Mahindra described the partnership as an understanding to form a joint venture and said it will supply the systems to civilian customers and the Indian defense ministry. A Telephonics spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.

Together Telephonics and Mahindra will establish a factory in India to make and service airborne radar systems for Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., and airborne maritime surveillance systems for the Indian Navy and Coast Guard.

Telephonics is a division of Griffon Corp., a holding company based in Manhattan.