The defence sector has been all in the news after the horrific Pahalgam attack. With India’s strong defence strategies, this sector is not only growing within the country, but has now become one of the crucial exporting nations for 100 other countries. In the past 11 years, India’s defence exports have surged 34X from FY14’s ₹686 crore to FY25’s ₹23622 crore. As per experts, varied reasons are playing behind in making India a net exporter of defence products from a net importer a few years back. 

Eyeing Robust Growth 

In FY25, the defence exports saw a rise of around 12% from ₹21083 crore in FY24 to the record high exports of ₹23622 crore. For FY26, the defence officials are eyeing an export figure of ₹30000 crore. 

The defence exports target set by the Defence Ministry for 2029 is of ₹50000 crore. As per the details shared by the ministry, India has become one of the most self-reliant countries when it comes to defence production. At the same time, it is exporting its wide range of arms and ammunition, other defence equipment parts and controls, systems, sub-systems to more than 80 countries around the world. 

While BrahMos has all the eyes on it from around the world, there are other ballistic Indian missiles as well, like K4, K15, then the artillery guns, rifles, which are tech-enabled, all this war equipment is in high demand from across different parts of the world.

Apart from this equipment, Indian defence exports also include a plethora of products and equipment. 

• Bulletproof jackets
• Chetak Helicopters 
• Lightweight torpedoes
• Fast interceptor boats
• Dornier (DO-228) aircrafts
• Night vision monocular and binocular
• Torpedo loading mechanism
• Tear gas launchers
• HF radios
• Armoured protection vehicles 
• Others

In the April statement given by the Defence Ministry, there has been a significant rise in exports of around 42.9% by the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). It is also indicative of the growing acceptance and demand for Indian defence products. 

On the other hand, the private sector contributed around ₹15233 crore in the defence exports in FY25, while DPSUs contributed ₹8389 crore. A year back, these figures stood at ₹15209 crore and ₹5874 crore respectively, showing a huge rise for the experts from DPSUs. 

The top nations that are importing defence equipment from India include – 

• USA
• Armenia
• France
• South East Asian Countries and South America are also becoming top importing nations, as per sources. 

Factors Driving Growth 

Coming to the factors that are driving this immense growth in India’s defence exports, one of the primary reasons is the technology growth. This is an era of modern warfare, which is all about technology, and India rules the modern warfare space with its highly advanced technologies, along with artificial intelligence. Ravi Gupta, the former Director of DRDO, commented that we are capable of manufacturing advanced, modern-day warfare equipment. 

The reforms in the policies have played an immense role in boosting exports. India has eased the policies for doing business in this sector, which has contributed to the growing expertise. 

The Defence Ministry also approved a new system known as “Open General Export License” (OGEL) for defence exports. It is a one-time license for exports of particular items, and thus, no requirement for other export authorization under this system. 

Earlier, the ministry eased exports of defence products and also eased the policies for participating in defence expos in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Bahrain, and the UAE. It also updated the standards for military store operating procedures.  

Wrapping Up 

With the recent events, which turned all eyes on the defence stocks, the outlook for the FY26, with all the facts and figures indicating towards rising defence exports, the stocks can grow further. Thus, if you are interested in this space, keep an eye out for further development and see how the sector turns out in the coming days.  

Source: MoneyControl

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