The U.S., France and Armenia have emerged as the top three customers for Indian military exports.
Key points
- According to news reports, India is presently exporting military equipment to more than 100 nations across the world. The top three countries in the last financial year include the U.S., France and Armenia.
- The exports to the U.S. include a significant number of parts of aircraft and helicopters manufactured by Indian firms for global defence majors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
- The exports to France include a lot of software and electronic equipment, while the exports to Armenia include ATAGS artillery guns, Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher systems, Swathi weapon locating radars and other important systems.
- The Defence Industrial Base has been expanding with the presence of 16 Defence public sector units, 430 firms with licenses along 16000 medium and small-scale enterprises.
- There has been a around three-fold increase in the value of production since 2014-15. While the Indian firms produced equipment worth Rs. 46,429 crores in 2014-15, it has come to Rs. 1.27,265 crores in the last fiscal.
- The contribution of the private sector in this value of production is 21%.
- The major defence platforms produced in the country include the LCA Tejas fighter jets, aircraft carriers, warships, submarines, Dhanush artillery gun system, MBT Arjun, advanced towed artillery gun system, high mobility vehicles, weapon-locating vehicles, weapon-locating radar, 3D tactical control radar, software-defined radios, and Akash missile system.
