DRDO Opens Advanced Missile & Guided Bomb Manufacturing to Indian Private Defence Companies
DRDO is opening the door to a much bigger role for India’s private defence industry in missile and guided-bomb production. But this is more than another manufacturing partnership. The new model could reshape how India develops, integrates and mass-produces advanced weapons—and potentially address one of the biggest weaknesses in its growing missile arsenal: production capacity.
DEFENCE NEWS
A Wider Industrial Role
DRDO has invited Indian private companies to become long-term manufacturing partners for missiles and guided bombs, expanding private-sector participation from component supply into development, system integration, qualification and serial production.
The Expression of Interest (EOI), issued through Research Centre Imarat (RCI) for the Missile and Strategic Systems (MSS) cluster, seeks Development-cum-Production Partners (DcPPs) capable of working with DRDO throughout the weapon’s development and production cycle.
The MSS cluster handles advanced technologies including guidance and homing systems, ramjet and scramjet propulsion, and warhead systems. The industrial partners selected under the framework would therefore be involved in manufacturing some of the most technically demanding weapon systems being developed in India.
Strategic Weapons Enter the Framework
The significance of the EOI extends beyond conventional missiles and guided weapons. India has traditionally maintained a much tighter state-controlled production structure for strategic systems, including the Agni family and future nuclear-capable missile programmes, because of their role in the country’s nuclear deterrence architecture.
Tactical missile production began opening to private industry earlier in 2026. Programmes including Pralay, Rudram and NASM-SR were brought into a wider production framework involving companies such as Adani Defence, Bharat Forge, ICOMM and Solar Defence and Aerospace, alongside established public-sector companies including Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
The latest EOI extends this industrial approach into the strategic segment. It does not provide unrestricted access to sensitive programmes; project selection, technology transfer, qualification and production remain subject to DRDO and government controls.
Building System-Level Capability
The new framework is aimed at companies capable of handling substantially more than individual component manufacturing.
Selected partners will be embedded with DRDO engineering teams and participate in hardware and software procurement, system integration, checkout, qualification testing, production documentation, tooling and supply-chain coordination.
This is particularly relevant to missile production because a complete weapon integrates propulsion, navigation, guidance, seekers, onboard computers, flight-control systems, actuators, structures, warheads and fuzes.
Production capacity can therefore be constrained by weaknesses anywhere in the chain. A larger number of qualified production agencies can provide additional capacity across final integration as well as critical subsystems.
A Stringent Selection Process
DRDO has established significant financial, technical and regulatory requirements for prospective partners.
Applicants must have a minimum annual turnover of ₹100 crore, a net worth exceeding ₹34 crore or 5% of the estimated project value, and must have been profitable in at least two of the previous five years.
Companies must also hold a defence manufacturing licence and the required PESO licence for handling and storing explosives. They must maintain aerospace-grade quality-assurance systems and demonstrate the capability to handle military explosives based on materials such as RDX, TNT and metal-powder compositions.
DRDO will additionally assess project-management experience, previous execution of large production orders, manufacturing infrastructure and the ability to deliver bulk quantities exceeding 50 or 100 units where required.
A DRDO-appointed expert committee will physically inspect applicants’ facilities before shortlisting them.
The criteria are designed to identify companies with established industrial capability rather than firms entering missile manufacturing without the infrastructure required for serial production.
Competition With Oversight
The production model introduces competition while keeping DRDO at the centre of development and qualification.
At least two companies are expected to be selected for each project. They will work with DRDO on prototype development before the systems undergo testing and qualification.
Production orders would follow only after successful qualification and a requirement for volume induction by India’s strategic forces.
DRDO also intends to transfer technology to selected partners after completion of the development phase without a technology-transfer fee and on a non-exclusive basis. Transfers involving explosives, propellants and pyrotechnic materials will require the relevant statutory clearances.
The non-exclusive structure is significant because it can support multiple production sources for a critical weapon, reducing dependence on a single manufacturing line.
Private Industry Is Scaling Up
The private sector already has growing capabilities relevant to this model.
Adani Defence has announced a ₹2,500-crore investment in an integrated missile manufacturing ecosystem incorporating composite-propellant and TNT production, along with manufacturing capabilities for indigenous missile and precision-strike systems.
Tata Advanced Systems and Solar Aerospace and Defence are also among the established private-sector companies with relevant defence manufacturing capabilities.
Companies participating in tactical missile and guided-weapon programmes are simultaneously gaining experience in system integration, qualification and serial production. This creates a larger industrial pool capable of absorbing more complex DRDO-developed systems.
From PSU Dominance to Multiple Production Lines
The initiative forms part of a broader transition from the traditional DRDO–PSU production model towards a multi-agency industrial structure.
DRDO will continue to lead technology development, system design and qualification. Public-sector companies such as BDL retain major production responsibilities, while private companies are being added as Development-cum-Production Partners and production agencies.
The emerging model does not require private companies to replace PSUs. In several programmes, public and private manufacturers are already working simultaneously, creating a hybrid production structure.
By March 2026, DRDO’s broader DcPP framework had expanded to 134 companies, supported by more than 2,200 industries, with over 2,180 technology-transfer agreements signed. This provides an established industrial foundation for expanding private participation into more complex weapon programmes.
The Production Test
The significance of the EOI will ultimately depend on what happens after companies are selected.
India is simultaneously expanding missile capabilities across ballistic missiles, air-defence systems, anti-ship and anti-radiation weapons, air-to-air missiles, precision-guided bombs and long-range strike systems. These programmes require sustained access to propulsion, energetics, seekers, electronics, composites and precision manufacturing.
Multiple qualified production agencies can provide greater manufacturing redundancy, surge capacity and replenishment capability, while reducing the risk of a single production line becoming a bottleneck.
For DRDO, the objective is therefore clear: create an industrial network capable of taking an indigenous missile or guided bomb from successful development and qualification to repeatable, high-quality production at the scale required by the armed forces.