India has taken a serious step in the direction of opening certainly one of its most delicate areas of defence manufacturing to non-public firms.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accredited the switch of applied sciences developed by the state-run Defence Analysis and Growth Organisation (DRDO) for all typical missile methods to Indian trade for home manufacturing, the nation’s Ministry of Defence mentioned on Tuesday.
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The transfer marks a major shift for the sector dominated by government-run corporations and analysis laboratories. Non-public firms will have the ability to compete for the know-how and manufacturing rights, topic to technical {qualifications}, certifications and different regulatory necessities, the ministry mentioned.
The Narendra Modi-led authorities says the goal is to maneuver missiles from improvement into mass manufacturing quicker, improve home manufacturing and cut back India’s dependence on imports.
So, does India’s personal defence trade have the capability to fabricate refined missile methods on the scale and reliability the navy wants, is the nation shifting in the direction of growing its personal military-industrial complicated, and are there safety dangers concerned?
What did the federal government announce?
India’s Defence Ministry mentioned Singh had accredited the switch of DRDO-developed know-how for all typical missile methods to Indian defence firms for manufacturing contained in the nation.
“The target is to boost home manufacturing capabilities, strengthen the defence industrial base, and create alternatives for the participation of Indian MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) and different know-how companions within the provide chain,” the ministry mentioned in a press release.
The measure would allow the “profitable transition of missile system improvement to industrial manufacturing” and create alternatives for MSMEs and different know-how companions, the ministry added.
“DRDO stays dedicated to working carefully with Indian trade to facilitate the switch and absorption of superior defence applied sciences and to additional strengthen the nation’s indigenous defence capabilities.”
The announcement spans a variety of missiles, mentioned Aditya Ramanathan, a analysis fellow with the Bengaluru-based Takshashila Establishment.
“It’s going to embrace surface-to-air missiles, air-to-air missiles, anti-radiation missiles, antitank methods, and so forth. It’s going to additionally embrace extra heavy-duty {hardware} like land-attack cruise missiles,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Why is India doing this?
India has historically relied closely on state-owned defence firms to show weapons developed by DRDO into large-scale manufacturing. Bharat Dynamics, one such state-owned firm, has lengthy held a monopoly in missile manufacturing.
Tuesday’s announcement is a “huge change” as a result of it ends that monopoly, mentioned Ramanathan.
“Non-public firms have been making missile parts for years, however what this resolution does is permit them to maneuver up the worth chain and turn into prime integrators for these methods,” he mentioned.
Whereas India largely depends on domestically made missiles, it additionally imports missiles — particularly from Russia and Israel, two key weapons suppliers to the nation.
However below Modi, India has tried to each encourage self-reliance in defence — an idea that the federal government calls Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India — and prod overseas defence majors to fabricate in India.
At a time when geopolitical allegiances are altering quick, and India faces uncertainties on each main borders — with rivals Pakistan and China — the nation below Modi has greater than doubled its defence funds, from $38bn in 2014 to $86bn within the present monetary yr.
The transient four-day battle with nuclear-armed rival and neighbour Pakistan final yr has injected contemporary urgency into India’s defence preparedness plans. This yr’s defence funds is 16 p.c greater than the earlier yr’s.
Different geopolitical occasions have compelled the federal government’s hand too, steered Ramanathan.
“I don’t assume this transfer would have occurred as quickly because it did if not for the expertise of latest wars. Indian decision-makers have been taking a look at Ukraine, they’ve been wanting on the US battle with Iran, and naturally they’ve been imbibing the teachings of operations from final yr,” he mentioned.
“One purpose you’re going to want massive stockpiles is that, as we’ve seen just lately, you’re going to burn by way of your stock fairly rapidly. The opposite purpose is that your adversary may additionally degrade your stockpiles utilizing their very own precision-strike methods.”
China, he mentioned, was a significant factor in India’s calculations.
“India believes that to discourage China, which is its most succesful adversary, it might want to exhibit that it could possibly each inflict and soak up actually punishing attrition over weeks of gruelling warfare,” Ramanathan mentioned.
To that finish, India can also be making a tri-services typical missile pressure. “To be a viable and efficient pressure, it’s going to require severe journal depth, and this can’t be achieved with out the lively involvement of the personal sector,” he added.
What’s India’s defence trade already manufacturing?
In June, India introduced that it was making ready to spend greater than $2bn on navy drones from home producers, reflecting the fast growth of the nation’s personal defence trade.
Greater than 600 firms had been concerned in India’s drone trade, together with main teams corresponding to Adani, Larsen & Toubro, and Tata Superior Methods, in addition to startups.
In July, India additionally accredited the acquisition of a variety of navy gear for its defence forces value $5.46bn, together with missiles, digital warfare methods and Kamikaze drones.
India can also be pushing to quickly modernise its navy with an eye fixed on Beijing’s rising affect in key Indian Ocean delivery lanes. In December, New Delhi introduced plans to obtain not less than 75 ships and submarines, with most anticipated to be constructed domestically.
On the identical time, India is making an attempt to diversify the overseas sources of its weapons. Over the previous decade, New Delhi has labored to maneuver away from its longstanding reliance on Russia for navy {hardware}, increasing defence ties with nations corresponding to the US, France and — more and more — Israel.
Does the personal sector have the capability to construct missiles?
Non-public arms producers in India have been growing spending on bolstering navy manufacturing up to now few years.
Main conglomerates have invested closely in ammunition, drones, aerospace and navy electronics. Of late, they’ve began to spend money on services that goal to fabricate missiles.
Adani Defence & Aerospace, owned by enterprise tycoon Gautam Adani, an in depth affiliate of Indian Prime Minister Modi, introduced plans in 2024 to speculate greater than 30 billion rupees ($315m) in ammunition and missile manufacturing services in Uttar Pradesh.
The services would come with capabilities for dealing with explosives utilized in missiles and precision munitions.
However commitments and intent don’t construct missiles.
“Finally, I believe the success or failure of this transfer will rely on how the Indian authorities locations orders,” Ramanathan mentioned. “Making missiles is an extremely complicated and expensive affair, and firms are going to have to speculate so much in infrastructure, know-how and folks. These types of investments will solely repay if the federal government locations massive sufficient orders to justify them and likewise, hopefully, go away these firms with some earnings that they will pour again into analysis and improvement.”
What missiles does India have?
India has a variety of cruise and ballistic missiles, a number of of that are additionally able to carrying nuclear warheads.
In Might, on the anniversary of the 2025 battle with Pakistan, India efficiently test-fired the Agni-V, its most superior nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile that may attain a distance of 5,500km (3,418 miles) — a variety that covers all of China, the Center East and even components of Europe.
Its different ballistic missiles have ranges from as little because the Prithvi-1 (150km or 93 miles) to the Agni-IV (4,000km or 2,485 miles), once more masking the whole lot from border skirmishes with Pakistan to India’s prolonged neighbourhood.
It additionally has highly effective cruise missiles, just like the BrahMos, co-developed with Russia, which has a variety of as much as 500km (311 miles), and was utilized in final yr’s battle with Pakistan.
Is India additionally exporting missiles and different weapons?
India has dramatically ramped up its navy exports in recent times, from simply $72m in 2014-15 — when Modi got here to energy — to $4bn in 2025-2016.
Paras Defence, certainly one of India’s fast-growing defence producers, mentioned this month it expects its exports to greater than double within the 2026–27 monetary yr, as much as $14m, pushed partly by elevated demand linked to conflicts within the Center East.
Indian arms makers have additionally been concerned in joint ventures with firms overseas. Adani Defence, in partnership with Elbit Methods – Israel’s largest weapons producer – produces the large Hermes 900 armed drone methods.
A 2024 investigation by Al Jazeera uncovered how India was exporting rocket components and ammunition to Israel, even because the Modi authorities was publicly calling for diplomacy to finish the battle on Gaza.
In June 2026, Amnesty International mentioned in a report that India’s weapons exports to Israel made it complicit within the genocide in Gaza.
However it isn’t simply Israel that has sought and acquired weapons from Indian producers. Neither is it simply bullets and weapons components that India is exporting at present — full missiles are in demand, too.
In 2022, the Philippines purchased three batteries of the BrahMos missiles from India. Since then, Vietnam and Indonesia have signed offers with India for the acquisition of those missiles. And India has submitted a proposal to the United Arab Emirates providing to provide the Gulf nation these missiles, too.
Is the newest transfer a step in the direction of constructing a military-industrial complicated?
That seems to be the intention.
Whereas Tuesday’s announcement marks the primary time that India’s state-run analysis and manufacturing services will switch missile know-how to the personal sector, the federal government earlier this yr shortlisted personal corporations to fabricate the nation’s next-generation fighter jets.
Tata Superior Methods, a subsidiary of Tata Sons, and Bharat Forge are amongst firms to be shortlisted, and are rising as main makers of artillery methods, ammunition and aerospace methods. India has its homegrown jets, however imports essentially the most cutting-edge planes in its arsenal, together with the Rafale fighters from France. The Indian Air Power additionally depends closely on Soviet-era jets.
Nonetheless, whereas India “desires to construct a wider defence industrial base”, mentioned Ramanathan, “it is vitally removed from growing the kind of military-industrial complicated that [former US President Dwight] Eisenhower anxious about. Energy in India nonetheless resides overwhelmingly with the federal government.”
What about India’s navy imports?
Regardless of the surge in home manufacturing and exports of particular weapons methods and components, India on the entire stays a serious navy importer.
India was the world’s second-largest importer of weapons between 2021 and 2025, based on the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute (SIPRI): Russia was its largest supply, accounting for 40 p.c of India’s imported weapons.
Are there dangers in transferring delicate know-how to the personal sector?
Because the US and Israel bombed Iran in March this yr, a bunch of Iranian hackers claimed it broke into the servers of main US defence producer Lockheed Martin, stealing blueprints of parts used within the F-35 fighter jets.
The alleged knowledge breach uncovered the dangers of personal firms — which frequently have decrease safety requirements and oversight than top-secret authorities laboratories — holding delicate data.
However Ramanathan identified that in India’s case, “the businesses which might be more than likely to get the missile contracts are all outdated fingers”.
“They’ve been concerned within the defence sector in some capability for many years, they usually have expertise in coping with confidentiality and secrecy,” he mentioned.
The Indian authorities, on its half, additionally “doesn’t need the know-how or its missile secrets and techniques to go to its adversaries, and it additionally desires to abide by its commitments to the Missile Know-how Management Regime, which provides India a number of benefits,” he mentioned, referring to one of many world’s main export-control regimes.
“So India has good causes, in its personal self-interest, to make sure that missile know-how doesn’t leak.”
