Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), India's premier defence aerospace company, has announced a sharp increase in its research and development (R&D) investment, aiming to elevate its innovation capabilities to global standards.

The company unveiled a comprehensive new R&D manual, marking a shift towards enhancing flexibility, speed, risk management, and autonomy in project allocation. The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the manual during the annual review of 16 Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) in New Delhi.

Currently, HAL spends around ₹2,500 crore annually on R&D, which is about 6% of its sales. The new manual supports a plan to increase this expenditure significantly to ₹17,000 crore over the coming years.

This aligns HAL’s goals with global aerospace leaders, who typically invest 7–8% of their revenues in innovation. HAL’s R&D spend has grown from 6% of sales in FY20 to 9.5% in FY24, underpinning new platform development and generating over 1,000 intellectual property rights.

The manual introduces a more agile R&D ecosystem by digitising processes, fostering intellectual property creation, and improving collaboration with Indian academic institutions. Importantly, it allows HAL to initiate and fund projects proactively, unlike earlier practices that depended on waiting for customer interest, thus speeding up indigenous innovation.

This initiative coincides with India’s Defence Minister declaring 2025 the "Year of Reforms," focusing on advancing technology development by defence PSUs, boosting exports, and furthering indigenisation.

Over the last decade, the 16 defence PSUs collectively invested ₹30,952 crore in R&D, with HAL, Bharat Electronics Limited, and Bharat Dynamics Limited leading the efforts. The next five years will see this pace doubling, with a projected ₹32,766 crore R&D investment across these entities.

HAL was awarded Maharatna status in October 2024, a recognition that grants it greater autonomy and financial powers. It currently holds an order book of approximately 1,90,000 Crores, providing firm revenue visibility as it works to boost India’s aerospace and defence manufacturing capabilities on a global scale.

HAL’s new ₹17,000 crore R&D investment plan and cutting-edge manual signify a transformative phase, aimed at doubling innovation output, aligning with international standards, and cementing India’s position as a major global defence aerospace player.

This will support faster indigenous design cycles, robust intellectual property generation, and stronger academia-industry linkages, ultimately advancing India’s strategic autonomy in defence technology.​

Agencies