New Delhi: India’s defence exports touched a record Rs 13,000 crore in the 2021-2022 fiscal, said Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar Friday, with the private sector playing an important role in aerospace manufacturing — both manned and unmanned aircraft.

“The total defence export in 2021-2022 stands at Rs 13,000 crore,” Defence Secretary Kumar said, while speaking to a group of journalists at the South Block.

Sanjay Jaju, additional secretary in the Department of Defence Production, said the increase in exports stood at “eight times” of what it was around five years ago.

When asked what is the ratio of exports between government-owned defence public sector undertakings (PSU) and private firms, Kumar said while it stood at 10:90 earlier, it is at 30:70 currently.

Rs 35,000 Crore Export In Next Five Years

Sources said the reason behind rise in defence PSU share from 10 per cent to 30 per cent is the nearly Rs 2,500 crore deal that India made with Philippines for the BrahMos missiles.

Sources also said that a majority of the country’s defence export is in the aerospace sector, where Indian firms have been manufacturing several parts, including fuselage for foreign companies.

For example, all fuselages of American attack helicopter Apache sold across the world are now made in India by a joint venture between Boeing and Tata. Similarly, companies like Adani Defence and Lohia Group are making fuselages for several Israeli drones.

While India inked the high-profile BrahMos deal with the Philippines this year, the biggest beneficiary of India’s defence exports in the last five years has been Myanmar.

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data on international arms transfer trends, roughly 50 per cent of India’s defence exports from 2017 to 2021 were to Myanmar, followed by Sri Lanka at 25 per cent, and Armenia at 11 per cent.

In 2020, the Narendra Modi government had set a target of Rs 35,000 crore ($ 5 billion) export in aerospace, and defence goods and services in the next five years. This is part of the turnover of Rs 1.75 lakh crore ($ 25 billion) in defence manufacturing by 2025 that the government is aiming to achieve.