From ₹686 Crore to ₹21,000 Crore — How Indian Defence Exports Grew 30x in a Decade

In 2013-14 India exported defence goods worth ₹686 crore. In 2023-24 the figure was ₹21,083 crore, and in 2024-25 it crossed ₹23,600 crore. The government's stated target is ₹50,000 crore of annual exports by 2029, within a production target of ₹3 lakh crore.

What India actually sells

• BrahMos — the US$375 million Philippines contract (2022) for shore-based anti-ship batteries was the first big-ticket weapon export; Indonesia and Vietnam are in negotiation.
• Pinaka rockets and Akash SAMs — Armenia became the first export customer for both, along with ATAGS howitzers and Swathi weapon-locating radars.
• Dornier 228 and Dhruv helicopters — sold to Guyana, Mauritius, Maldives, Nepal and others; HAL's Dornier line has renewed export interest.
• Small arms, ammunition and components — the bulk by volume. Private manufacturers supply components to Boeing, Lockheed, Airbus, Safran and Israeli primes; Tata's Hyderabad plant builds Apache fuselages for the global line.
• Simulators, protective gear, EO/IR systems — dozens of MSMEs export to more than 85 countries.

The policy stack that made it possible

1. Open General Export Licences (OGEL) for parts, components and select platforms to specified countries.
2. Defence Attachés assigned export targets, with a dedicated export promotion cell in DDP.
3. Line of credit financing through EXIM Bank for friendly nations buying Indian systems.
4. Positive Indigenisation Lists — five lists covering 500-plus items that cannot be imported after set dates, forcing domestic capacity that then becomes exportable.
5. Defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with land, testing infrastructure and state incentives.

The structural constraints

Exports remain concentrated in components rather than platforms; Tejas and Prachand are yet to find a foreign buyer. Certification and after-sales support networks — which Western primes have built over decades — are the real gap. Payment terms, offset credits and government-to-government agreements will decide the next big wins.

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