Govt to hand over all DRDO conventional missile tech to private firms for production, Defence Ministry says

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has cleared the transfer of DRDO-developed technologies covering all conventional missile systems to private industry in a bid to expand indigenous production, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Tuesday.

According to the MoD, the transfer of technology (ToT) aims to build up domestic manufacturing capacity, reinforce the defence industrial ecosystem, and open up greater participation for Indian MSMEs and other technology collaborators across the supply chain.

Conventional missiles refer to systems fitted with standard high-explosive warheads — for instance, explosives based on blends such as RDX and TNT — rather than nuclear, biological, or chemical payloads.

Although the MoD did not release a system-by-system list under the ToT arrangement, it could potentially cover air-defence platforms like Akash, air-to-air missiles such as Astra, and the Nag anti-tank guided missile.

Tuesday’s statement is distinct from a separate, recent DRDO move to seek private manufacturing partners for missile programmes. On August 17, DRDO invited Indian private companies to act as a “partner in the development and production of missile and bomb weapon system projects of MSS [missiles and strategic systems] cluster”.

Currently, Indian private players including Tata Advanced Systems, Kalyani, Larsen & Toubro, and Bharat Forge supply missile sub-systems and parts, but do not yet manufacture complete missile systems in the way Western groups such as MBDA (Meteor) and Raytheon (AMRAAM) do.

Both steps — Tuesday’s ToT announcement and the earlier DRDO outreach — align with the government’s wider push to refocus state organisations such as DRDO in defence and Isro in the civilian space domain on research and development, while progressively moving manufacturing activity to private industry. The broader goals include scaling national production capacity, stimulating innovation, attracting investment, and enabling exports.

Last week, Pawan Goenka, chairman of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (In-Space), said Isro is expected over time to stop manufacturing launch vehicles, with production gradually transitioning to private firms.