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Bharat Electronics Sees Balanced Defence Order Inflows; Focuses on Counter-Drone, DEW and Export Opportunities
The Print Times
Bengaluru: Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) Chairman and Managing Director Mr. Manoj Jain said the company’s defence order book and order inflows are more or less evenly distributed across the Army, Navy and Air Force, with each segment accounting for around 30% of the total defence business.
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is a Navratna PSU under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. It manufactures state-of-the-art electronic products and systems for the Army, Navy and the Air Force. BEL has also diversified into various areas like homeland security solutions, smart cities, e-governance solutions, space electronics including satellite integration, energy storage products including e-vehicle charging stations, solar, network & cyber security, railways & metro solutions, airport solutions, Electronic Voting Machines, telecom products, passive night vision devices, medical electronics, composites and software solutions.
According to Mr. Jain, around 90% of BEL’s total business is from defence, with the Army, Navy and Air Force contributing roughly 30% each. He said order inflows are also more or less in the same line.
The company’s major order book components include Electronic Fuze for the Army, LRSAM for the Navy, LCA LRUs for the Air Force, BMP-2 upgrade for the Army, Ashwini Radar for the Air Force, EW Suite Mi-17 V5 for the Air Force and MPR Arudhra for the Air Force.
He said the INR55,000 crore order book would also be more or less evenly distributed across the Army, Navy and Air Force, reflecting equal priority and confidence from all three services.
Counter-Drone Market Growing
Mr. Jain said the drone and counter-drone market is growing exponentially, with recent conflicts highlighting the importance of drone and counter-drone solutions.
He said there is an opportunity for large companies like BEL, mid-sized companies, private sector companies such as Zen Technologies and startups. According to him, there are growth prospects for all players, as each company has unique solutions.
BEL is more focused on large, high-power laser-based or microwave-based Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) solutions integrated with D4 solutions, including hard-kill capabilities.
Mr. Jain said BEL is also working on drone-killing-drone solutions and EW jammers, with products covering D2, D3 and D4 varieties. While other players, particularly startups, are working on D2-type systems and different innovative solutions, BEL is focusing more on large and complex hard-kill-based systems.
He said BEL’s Central Research Laboratories (CRLs) and PDICs are looking into innovative solutions, either independently or by collaborating with startups. The company has also taken a few small orders jointly with startups and is going in a big way for small innovative products.
According to Mr. Jain, BEL is currently the de facto leader in the large complex domain solution.
Future Naval Programmes (Submarine)
On potential order sizes from follow-on P75, P80, P17A and other programmes, Mr. Jain said it is too early to predict the business volume.
He said programmes such as P17 Bravo, P18 and NGD are currently in configuration finalisation, technical interaction, specification finalisation and subsystem indigenisation stages. BEL is playing these roles jointly with DRDO and Navy teams.
Once the configuration and timelines are finalised and discussions on BQs begin, the company will have better clarity on the timeframe and size of orders.
Mr. Jain said that at least one year down the line, BEL may have better clarity about these figures for NGD. These programmes are beyond 2028-29 and are not expected before that, as they take time for configuration finalisation and determining the exact volume of business for BEL.
Netra 2 and Adani Defence
On the Netra 2 programme, Mr. Jain said BEL had participated in the bidding but was not L1. Adani became L1 and is the system integrator for the programme.
However, he said subsystem-level modules and capabilities of BEL will be used by DRDO as well as Adani. BEL’s subsystem strengths include Radar, EW, Data Links and other subsystems.
While BEL missed the system integrator role in this programme, Mr. Jain said its subsystem-level expertise and in-house strength in developing these systems would provide business opportunities down the line.
Private Participation in Missile Programmes
Mr. Jain said there is scope for several players beyond BDL to meet the requirements of missile programmes, particularly given the importance of missiles in recent conflicts.
He said BEL and private companies are pitching in, with BEL collaborating with private players in two or three programmes and receiving some orders as a DcPP partner.
According to Mr. Jain, BDL, BEL and private companies all have a role to play in meeting the requirement. He added that BEL is a leader in major electronics for most missile programmes, with expertise in complex electronics, subsystems and customised solutions.
Directed Energy Weapons
BEL has received orders over the last three years for its 2-kilowatt laser-based DEW solution, and Mr. Jain said around 80% of these orders have already been supplied.
Microwave-based DEW solutions are currently under evaluation, although BEL has a prototype ready, developed jointly with DRDO.
The company has also started customised configurations, particularly for export purposes. Mr. Jain said BEL has received good leads, conducted demonstrations in some countries and seen keen interest in high-power laser- and microwave-based DEW solutions.
He said BEL has in-house capabilities to customise different products based on the basic design developed by DRDO, including different versions and upgrades in range and higher-power lasers. These product versions are already being pipelined, with demonstrations given to end users and some external countries.
INR1,200 Crore-Plus Capex Planned
On annual capex for FY2027, Mr. Jain said BEL is keeping capex separate from indigenisation activities.
According to him, BEL is investing INR1,200 crore-plus under capex, which will take care of production-related activities, capacity enhancement and other investments.
Indigenisation activities are generally supported through the R&D budget. BEL has allocated more than INR2,200 crore for R&D for the year for niche technology development, indigenisation and collaborative R&D.
Tejas LRU Supply
On the delivery of Tejas aircraft, Mr. Jain said BEL supplies LRUs to HAL, including around 11 types of main LRUs related to LCA along with some additional EW-related LRUs.
These LRUs are electronic modules that are separately tested according to approved procedures before being supplied to HAL.
Mr. Jain said BEL has supplied more than the quantity required and that HAL already has enough electronic LRUs as per the contract delivery schedule. He assured that Tejas will not be delayed because of late supply of LRUs by BEL.
According to him, the main bottleneck, as per public and media reports, is still the engines.
Export Opportunities
Mr. Jain said almost all products and technologies currently being delivered to Indian customers have significant demand in international markets.
The key products include radios, next-generation software-defined radios, Satcom solutions and D4-type solutions.
He said BEL received an order of around INR2,000 crore last year for next-generation software-defined radios and is also increasing its presence in the build-to-print market for airborne segments through TR module-type products.
BEL is also focusing on communication, WLR-type weapon systems and other products, and Mr. Jain expressed confidence that the company would deliver better export-related figures than it is currently having.
R&D Across Defence Domains
Mr. Jain said every area in the defence electronics domain is important for BEL because each area requires technological upgradation.
He cited AI as an example, saying the technology is required across the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as across Radar and laser systems.
BEL is spending its R&D budget across all domains, with a slightly higher focus on large platform-type projects involving equipment such as Radar, Sonar and EW.
The company is also spending across subsystems, systems and equipment, as well as on indigenisation at the subsystem and module levels.
BEL is also spreading its R&D efforts towards diversification into civilian domains such as Rail, Metro, Aviation and Space, while consolidating its strengths in existing areas through newer technologies.
USD465 Million Export Order Book
Mr. Jain said BEL currently has an export order book of around USD465 million, while the leads being pursued are at least four to five times higher.
He said the company has given an internal guidance of around USD300 million in exports this year from the leads it is pursuing, spread across around 15 to 20 important products.
According to Mr. Jain, BEL is confident of gradually increasing its presence in the export market and aims to achieve 10% of its revenues through exports over the next five years.
The above statement of Mr. Manoj Jain has been extracted from the transcript of BEL for Q1 FY27 Concall.
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