State-owned defence manufacturer Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on Wednesday announced it has secured orders worth Rs 1,155 crore, in two separate deals.
It has received order worth Rs 850 crore from Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) for the supply of indigenous Multi Function Radar in X Band.
This fully indigenous radar designed by DRDO and manufactured by BEL is capable of detecting, acquiring and tracking airborne targets to provide protection to naval ships.
Additionally, BEL has secured orders valued at Rs 305 crore, including for navigational complex system for ships, thermal imagers, communication equipment, fire control system, gun control system, spares, services, etc, the company informed stock exchanges.
With these orders, BEL has now accumulated orders totaling Rs 7,075 crore in the current financial year, the exchange filing said.
Shares of state-owned defence and aerospace company Bharat Electronics have been doing well, backed by a series of orders the firm received over the past months. Over the past 12 months, the shares have almost doubled.
The central government has set the target of achieving indigenous defence manufacturing worth Rs 175,000 crore including defence exports of Rs 35,000 crore by the year 2024-25.
The government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment, thereby promoting self-reliance in defence manufacturing.
The government is also investing heavily in defence and aerospace manufacturing, with several defence hubs being set up. Notably, many global companies have either shared or showed intent, to share critical defence and aerospace knowledge with India.
India's defence exports have touched a record Rs 21,083 crore (about USD 2.63 billion) in the financial year 2023-24, with a growth of 32.5 per cent over the last fiscal when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore. The recent figures indicate that the defence exports have grown by 31 times in the last 10 years as compared to 2013-14.
The total value of defence production in India rose 17 per cent to Rs 126,887 crore last fiscal year.
