Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on Tuesday said the government is considering opening up ballistic missile manufacturing to the private sector, following its decision to allow private participation for the first time in the indigenous fifth-generation fighter jet project under the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme.
Both these manufacturing areas were restricted to the defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), with the Defence Secretary stating that the proposed move is aimed at providing level playing field to the private sector, which also been clearly laid out in the Draft Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2026 released by the Ministry of Defence earlier this year to amend the procurement manual existing since 2020.
He also informed that the government is working towards a new line of credit (LoC) scheme to boost defence exports to less developed countries.
Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit 2026, Defence Secretary Singh said there is a growing “willingness to transfer technology to private sector for various types of ballistic missiles,” adding that “the time has come” to operationalise such plans given its increasing strategic importance in the modern warfare.
“..I think that you will see steps being taken by the government to ensure that we have sufficient private sector involvement in that space as well,” he said while responding to queries from a gathering of industry leaders, senior armed forces personnel, and other stakeholders.
The CII’s special plenary session was themed on “ Geostrategy, Supply Chains and Strategic Resilience: The New Imperative”,.
For the AMCA programme, three consortium — two are a blend of private and public sectors and the third one is entirely private — have been selected to provide indigenous industry an opportunity to build the fifth generation aircraft on a design and prototype build by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), as per the Defence Secretary.
“..Hopefully they will receive RFPs in the next month or so, and we will end up with, hopefully, a production line, which is, in addition to what the HAL does, and it will create the kind of healthy combination that this country needs to build its aerospace industry at a large scale,” Singh said.
Outlining the Defence Forces Vision 2047, released earlier, he stated the MoD looks ahead for the national defence budget to increase year-on-year by 20 per cent over the next 21 years.
“We are targeting a defence production output of ₹8.8 lakh crore. Most importantly, we envision our defence exports reaching ₹2.8 lakh crore, placing India firmly among the top three global exporters of high-quality defence equipment,” he observed.
achievable targets
According to him, the Defence Forces Vision, encapsulated in the mantra; ‘Atmanirbhar, Agrani, and Atulya Bharat 2047’ (Self-reliant, Leading, and Incomparable India) sets staggering but achievable economic targets for the defence sector.
He said that in the 1.5 years since he has been Defence Secretary, ₹4.5 lakh crore worth of projects have been given to the industry. Of that, 70 per cent in value and 90 per cent of the total contracts have gone to the indigenous industry, he emphasised.
Singh also advised the industry to build internal trust among themselves and refrain from filing complaints against each other as it delays acquisition process. He told them, among others, to meet timelines — an assertion he has repeated more than once in the past too.
India is on a transformative journey from the world’s largest arms importer to a global defence manufacturing hub, with defence exports skyrocket to record ₹38,424 crore in Financial Year 2025-26, a massive 62.66 per cent increase over previous fiscal, he stated. In this landmark milestone, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and the private sector have contributed 54.84 per cent and 45.16 per cent respectively, he noted.
Published on May 12, 2026