Apart from BrahMos, Akash missile is also a military weapon which has potential for export

New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence is set to widen the horizon of ‘Make in India’ and meeting the target of Rs 35,000-crore military exports by 2025 on the back of global interest in fighter jet ‘Tejas’ coupled with successes in new technologies.

Focus On ‘Make In India’

BrahMos missile is being exported to the Philippines, while India is getting ready to ink the ‘Tejas’ deal with Malaysia

HAL has the capacity to manufacture more than 50 helicopters every year and is also looking at the export market

Sources say that for the first time, the Indian defence industry is participating in the global supply chain significantly

The ‘Make in India’ initiative is providing state-of-the-art equipment, which matches the best in the world. The BrahMos missile is being exported to the Philippines, while India is getting ready to ink the ‘Tejas’ Mk1A deal with Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) soon.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which makes ‘TEJAS’ fighter jets, had got Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) in February last year for manufacturing light utility helicopters (LUH). The first LUH was manufactured last month.

Now, HAL has the capacity to manufacture more than 50 helicopters every year and is also looking at the export market. Exports touched Rs 13,000 crore in the fiscal ending March 31, 2022, and are set to rise this year.

Sources say that for the first time, the Indian defence industry is participating in the global supply chain significantly. “Some 50 per cent of the Indian defence exports is going to leading manufacturers in the US,” said an official.

About 2,500 patent applications were filed in the past four years.

Last month, the Sealift Command of the US started sending its warships to an Indian shipyard for repair and maintenance, developing a new innovation ecosystem.

The Ministry of Defence is upbeat about the non-hackable channel of ‘quantum computing communication’ over 150 km, while the global capacity is 90 km.

Aircraft carrier INS Vikrant commissioned last week is also seen as a significant step, catapulting India into the league of a few nations to have indigenous capability to design and build aircraft carriers.

Contracts from domestic industries are worth Rs 2.2 lakh crore and projects worth Rs 5.07 lakh crore are in different stages of procurement by the three services.

The three services enhanced the use of artificial intelligence in their weaponry. “The Indian armed forces have developed solutions that would not have been available from foreign vendors. If it would have been the case, sensitive data shared with foreign vendors would have been compromised,” said an official.