In his Independence Day speech this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminded the country that India is attaining ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence and is emerging as a global manufacturing hub. While this may sound surprising, India once heavily relied on defence imports but as per the latest data, the annual defence production hit a record high of Rs 1.27 lakh crore in the Financial Year (FY) 2023-24. In the same fiscal, defence exports touched a record high of Rs 21,083 crore, an increase of 32.5% over FY 2022-23.
“In addition, there has been a massive jump in defence exports in the first quarter of FY 2024-25. Rs 6,915 crore worth of defence equipment has been exported in the first quarter, an increase of 78% from the first quarter of FY 2023-24, when the figure was Rs 3,885 crore,” said the government data.
Now, according to a TOI report, countries like the United States, France, and Armenia have emerged as the top importers of Indian defence products. Armenia tops the chart as the importer of ‘finished’ weapon systems from India, such as Akash air defence missile systems, Pinaka multi-launch rocket systems, and 155mm artillery guns.
India recorded defence sales/exports worth Rs 21,083 crore ($2.6 billion) to other countries in 2023-24. It included the US, France and Armenia.
Indian public and private sector firms are now exporting a diverse array of arms, ammunition, and fuses to nearly 100 countries. These exports include complete weapon systems and platforms such as BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, Dornier-228 aircraft, artillery guns, radars, Akash missiles, Pinaka rockets, and armoured vehicles.
Notably, other countries are also expressing interest in the Indian defence products. Since India secured a $375-million deal in January 2022 to export three BrahMos anti-ship coastal missile batteries to the Philippines, interest in these precision-strike missiles—co-developed by India and Russia—has been growing among other ASEAN nations and several Gulf countries.
However, there is a long way to go for India to become self-reliant in defence as the country remains the world’s largest arms importer accounting for 9.8% of the total global imports between 2019-2023.