Defence, Security and Dual-Use
The practice
A German defence, security or dual-use supplier entering India faces problems no generalist consultant can usefully touch: the Ministry of Defence procurement cycle and its documented timelines, the Defence Acquisition Procedure and its categories, offset and indigenous-content obligations, the defence public-sector and ordnance ecosystem, iDEX and the innovation route, Arms Act licensing, foreign-investment limits in defence manufacturing, and the institutional relationship-building without which none of the above moves.
An Indian supplier entering Germany faces a different and equally specific list: export control administered by the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control, Bundeswehr procurement through BAAINBw, NATO codification, the qualification and certification expectations of German primes, and the industry associations through which this market actually organises itself.
We work both directions.
Why us
Sanjay Iyer was India’s Defence Attaché to Germany, Austria and Switzerland from 2019 to 2023 — four years spent inside exactly this relationship, on the Indian government’s side of it, dealing daily with German ministries, armed forces, industry and research institutions. Thirty-six years in the Indian Army preceded it.
Uwe Sellmer brings the other half of what defence transactions in this corridor actually require. Offsets, joint ventures, long qualification cycles and long payment cycles are financing problems as much as market-access problems. One of us opens the door; the other structures what happens once you are through it.
What we do in this sector
What we do not do
We are advisers. We are not arms brokers, agents or middlemen. We do not accept success fees for the award of a government contract, we do not represent clients before procurement authorities as their agent, and we do not offer or facilitate any payment intended to influence a procurement decision. We expect our clients to hold their own export-control authorisations and we will not advise a transaction that appears to require an authorisation the client does not hold.
If that limits what we can do for you, it also tells you what kind of firm you are hiring.