India’s domestic defence production has surged to an all-time high of Rs 1.78 lakh crore in 2025-26, showing impressive increase in domestic manufacturing of military equipment. However, the country still remains the world’s second-largest arms importer.
This is a four-times jump from 2013-14 when the BJP-led NDA came to power in May 2014, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indigenous defence production was Rs 43,746 crore in 2013-14.
In April, the ministry had announced figures of export of defence equipment, items and systems saying it had touched an all-time high of Rs 38,424 crore in the Financial Year (FY) 2025-26.
On Wednesday, in a post on X, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh credited the leadership of Prime Minister Modi for taking India’s defence production to newer heights, and lauded the collective efforts of the Department of Defence Production and public and private sectors for achieving the landmark.
The Ministry of Defence said the growth reflects the growing momentum of the Government’s push for self-reliance in defence.
The Ministry of Defence said the figure of Rs 1.78 lakh crore of domestic manufacturing represents a 15.6% growth over the previous fiscal year’s output of Rs 1.54 lakh crore and a staggering 110% increase since FY 2020-21 when the figure was Rs 84,643 crore.
Defence Public Sector Undertakings and other PSUs accounted for approximately 76% of total production, while the private sector contributed 24%, which is a rise from 22% in FY 2024-25.
The share of the private sector is at its all-time high of around Rs 42,000 crore in FY 2025-26, reflecting its expanding role in the defence ecosystem.
Despite the massive growth India continues to import selected niche technologies like aero engines, long range missiles like the S400, specialised helicopters and marine engines. Sweden-based think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) which tracks arms sales globally, in its annual report in March this year said India was the world’s second biggest arms importer and accounted for 8.3% of global arms sales for a five-year block 2021-2025.
The SIPRI report titled ‘Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2025’ had a positive note that India’s dependence on imported arms had reduced. The report compared a previous five-year block of the years 2016-2020 with the latest assessment for the years 2021-2025 and said: “Indian arms imports fell by 4.0 per cent between 2016–20 and 2021–25.”
The decrease can be partly attributed to India’s growing ability to design and produce its own weapons. It also highlighted that India’s planned orders—including 140 combat aircraft from France and 6 submarines from Germany—indicate its continued and probably increasing reliance on foreign suppliers.
‘Make in India’ in defence equipment manufacturing is no more an elusive mirage, the fighter jet Tejas, nuclear submarine INS Arihant and missiles like Akash, BrahMos besides artillery guns and tanks are made here.
