Airbornics Defence and Space Private Limited (ADSL), the defence and aerospace division of India’s JCBL Group, has signed an agreement with Nigus Hercules Limited to develop maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capabilities for military equipment in Nigeria, with the Nigerian Army’s tanks and armoured vehicles as the first focus. The agreement was signed during the inaugural Africa International Defence Exhibition (AFRIDEX) 2026 in Lagos, where ADSL showcased its Indian-developed defence portfolio and explored opportunities for industrial collaboration.
“The first offering is maintenance, repair and overhaul. I think that is where we have common interest with the Nigerian region, including even the ECOWAS region, where we are putting up some infrastructure,” Raj Kumar Pandey, Joint Managing Director of ADSL, told Military Africa at the company’s stand. “Yesterday, we signed an agreement with Nigus Hercules, one of the local companies in Abuja, and they have industrial interest in Lagos.”
The company said the initiative marks a step towards building local defence sustainment capability, combining ADSL’s engineering expertise with Nigerian industrial participation, and that it is looking to deepen its presence in African markets. Its engagement in Nigeria, ADSL added, goes beyond presenting products to developing the technical skills needed to maintain and modernise military equipment inside the country.
From T-55 to T-72: life extension for legacy armour
Under the agreement, ADSL will provide technical expertise, spare parts and engineering support so that Nigus Hercules can set up a facility in Nigeria to maintain, repair and overhaul the Nigerian Army’s inventory, starting with tanks and other vehicles. According to BW Businessworld, the programme is intended to cover armoured vehicles, engines and air defence equipment used by the Nigerian Armed Forces, and the two companies are considering a Centre of Excellence for lifecycle support, upgrades and life extension of armoured platforms. Implementation is expected in phases, depending on agreed service requirements, facility readiness and technical training.
“We are going to look at the infrastructure to develop refurbishment and life extension for tanks and similar vehicles, and also add accessories, typical combat accessories, to convert existing legacy equipment into modern warfare equipment,” Pandey said. “This is our first vertical, where we are able to service any equipment, any tank. It could be a T-72. It could be a T-55. It could be any vehicle. This is our speciality, and this is what we bring to the platform for Nigeria and the ECOWAS region.”
Sandip Chakroborty, Joint Managing Director (Operations) of ADSL, said the agreement is a starting point. “We are going to do MRO business with them. We are going to provide all the technical expertise, as well as the spare parts and engineering support, to that company to set up a facility here to do the maintenance, repair and overhaul of the inventory that the Nigerian Army has in terms of tanks, especially the tanks, and other vehicles,” he said. “So I think that is a beginning, and from there we are also going to add other programmes. We are going to train the locals. It creates an ecosystem, and eventually the Nigerian Army goes into a self-sustenance mode where they can service the vehicles on the go.”
ADSL brings relevant experience from home. In India it has supported T-72 tanks and BMP infantry fighting vehicles, delivered refurbished WZT-3 armoured recovery vehicles to the Indian Army’s Kharga Corps, and signed an agreement with the Fire and Fury Corps to set up a new-generation vehicle repair hub and warehouse at the 14 Corps Zonal Workshop in Leh, Raksha Anirveda reported.
Who is Nigus Hercules?
Nigus Hercules Limited is led by Chief Executive Officer HRH Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, with Rohit Nandal as Chief Operating Officer. Ado-Ibrahim said the initiative would focus on “developing local skills and providing dependable support for military equipment”, while Nandal said it would “help maintain the operational readiness of defence assets”. Pandey described Nigus Hercules as a partner of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), which he said allows ADSL to bring its capabilities to Nigeria and other ECOWAS countries.
The Nigus name has appeared in several defence-industrial deals this year. In March, Nigus International Investment Limited signed a memorandum of understanding with Emirati firm Elmirate Capital for a $200 million investment in Nigeria’s defence and aerospace sectors, and in May NIGUS signed an agreement with Turkey’s DASAL Aviation Technologies covering loitering munitions and a local logistics and assembly framework.
Weapon stations, counter-drone systems and land systems
ADSL is organised into four verticals: MRO and sustenance, combat system technologies, land systems and aerial delivery systems. Its combat system technologies vertical includes a range of remote-controlled weapon stations for 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm, 12.7 mm and 30 mm weapons, and larger calibres. “We have our own technologies. We have full control, so it can be customised: single weapon, double weapon. You can add technologies from different countries, like US systems, and make a composite weapon station,” Pandey said.
The same vertical covers counter-drone systems with soft-kill and hard-kill options, specialised hard-kill drones, and a launcher designed to defeat threats approaching fixed sites or mobile equipment such as tanks and artillery. ADSL’s weapon station work draws on a Slovakian company specialising in remote weapon stations, fire control and stabilisation that it acquired in 2025, and on an agreement with Slovakia to co-develop turrets, active protection systems and remote weapon systems for light tanks, with manufacturing in India, defenceWeb reported.
In land systems, ADSL builds armoured vehicles and command-and-control vehicles that can be linked to central commands, supplying both the software and hardware. It also makes strategic trailers to its own design for moving tanks, other vehicles and complete equipment sets.
The fourth vertical is aerial delivery. ADSL makes parachute-based systems for dropping personnel and cargo from aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, C-17 Globemaster III and CASA C-295, with a complete lifecycle support system from loading cargo onto the aircraft to the drop itself, all manufactured in its own plant. In India, the company has received a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) technology transfer for a 20-tonne heavy drop system, and the Indian Army has validated its 28-foot heavy drop system. “We are very open to bringing these technologies to this market. We are here to ensure that Nigeria gets these technologies, develops its own local technologies based on them and serves the sovereignty of this country,” Pandey said.
India’s industrial foothold in Nigeria
JCBL Group has interests beyond defence in India, including railway components and composites, passenger mobility and goods mobility, Chakroborty explained. ADSL’s arrival adds to India’s growing defence ties with Abuja: in 2023 Nigeria signed a $1 billion agreement with India to boost its defence industry, and Military Africa has examined India’s strategic inroads into Nigeria’s defence sector as well as the slow arrival of Indian weapons in Africa. MRO is a different route in, built on sustaining equipment Nigeria already owns rather than selling new platforms.
The deal was one of several industrial agreements at AFRIDEX, which also saw HAVELSAN and DICON sign a defence technology MoU and Nigerian company Arridex unveil its ADX-Barra 200 unmanned boats.
Keeping Nigeria’s armour in the fight
The Nigerian Army’s armoured fleet mixes Soviet-era designs with newer Chinese platforms, and keeping older tanks and vehicles serviceable has long depended on foreign support. China’s NORINCO opened a joint Comprehensive Service Center with the Nigerian Army in Bauchi in August for its own equipment. The ADSL and Nigus Hercules facility aims to fill a similar role for legacy T-55 and T-72-type armour, training Nigerian technicians along the way. How quickly the phased programme moves from agreement to a working workshop, and whether the Nigerian Army commits overhaul work to it, will show whether the partnership can deliver the self-sustaining capacity both companies describe.
