Bhopal, Aug. 27 -- India's defence production has risen nearly fourfold to around Rs 1.80 lakh crore over the past decade, while defence exports have climbed to close to Rs 39,000 crore, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday.
Speaking after laying the foundation stone for a Rs 472-crore tank overhaul facility at the Vehicle Factory Jabalpur (VFJ) in Madhya Pradesh, Singh said India's defence industrial base was expanding beyond the manufacture of weapons to include maintenance, refurbishment and upgrades of key military platforms.
Defence production stood at about Rs 46,000 crore in 2014, while exports were around Rs 1,000 crore, Singh said. The government is now aiming to raise annual defence exports to Rs 50,000 crore by 2028-29.
"The world's perception of India is changing," Singh said, linking the expansion of the defence sector to the broader Aatmanirbhar Bharat programme.
The new facility at the Jabalpur-based ordnance unit will overhaul T-72 and T-90 main battle tanks operated by the Indian Army. Once operational, it is expected to handle 80 tanks a year, helping address a gap in the Army's overhaul capacity.
The Army requires around 230 such tanks to be overhauled annually. The Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi currently has the capacity to overhaul about 150 tanks a year, with the proposed Jabalpur facility expected to cater to the remaining requirement, he said.
Singh described the project as an important addition to India's defence industrial ecosystem, saying it would strengthen the country's ability to support major combat platforms throughout their operational life cycle. He also said the project was expected to generate employment opportunities in the region.
The defence minister said the growing use of drones, precision missiles, satellites, artificial intelligence and cyber capabilities had transformed the nature of warfare, but had not made tanks irrelevant.
"The role of tanks has not ended; it is evolving," Singh said, arguing that armoured platforms would continue to play an important role in ground operations.
He said tanks retained their military significance because of their ability to combine mobility, protection and firepower, enabling troops to operate with protected mobility even in challenging terrain. The changing battlefield, he added, required armoured systems to be modernised and adapted rather than simply phased out.
Singh said the Jabalpur project represented a broader shift in India's defence manufacturing strategy, where domestic capability is increasingly being built not only for producing military equipment but also for sustaining, repairing and upgrading it over its entire service life.
Addressing the event, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's efforts, India was rapidly moving towards self-reliance in defence. He said Singh's resolve and leadership had strengthened India's fight against terrorism and its global standing.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.