Actions Must Match Words: Ensuring Responsibility is Central to Accelerating Domestic Defence Manufacturing
Summary
India's defence production sector has shown significant growth, reaching Rs 1.78 lakh crores in the last financial year — four times the 2013-14 figure — with an ambitious government target of Rs 8.8 lakh crores by 2047, driven by the "Make in India" and "Aatmanirbharta" initiatives launched in 2014 and 2020 respectively. Defence exports have also surged dramatically, recording Rs 38,424 crore in the last financial year, representing a 62.66% jump, reflecting growing international confidence in Indian military equipment and technologies. However, despite these encouraging headline numbers, serious structural challenges persist, particularly a massive order backlog stretching up to a decade in some cases, as highlighted in a June 2026 PwC report that raised concerns about execution capability and scaling of production. The Indian Air Force (IAF) is operating at a critically reduced capacity, fielding only 29-30 combat squadrons against a sanctioned strength of 42, representing a significant operational handicap that urgent indigenous production was meant to address but has so far failed to adequately resolve. The article argues that while India's public sector has not achieved the same level of technological assimilation as China, the private sector has only recently been granted a near-level playing field, suggesting that systemic accountability and structural reforms remain essential to translating ambitious targets into tangible military readiness.
Key Takeaways
- 1. The IAF faces a critical combat readiness deficit, operating at roughly 70% of its sanctioned squadron strength (29-30 vs. 42 squadrons), posing serious national security implications given regional threats from China and Pakistan
- 2. Despite impressive growth statistics in defence production and exports, a decade-long order backlog in some segments reveals a fundamental gap between production ambition and actual operational delivery capability
- 3. India's public sector defence enterprises have struggled to match China's level of technological assimilation and competitive manufacturing efficiency, undermining the strategic goals of the Aatmanirbharta initiative
- 4. Defence exports growing by 62.66% year-on-year signals genuine international market confidence in Indian military hardware, representing an emerging strategic and economic opportunity that requires sustained production scalability to capitalize upon
- 5. The article identifies accountability as the missing critical ingredient — without enforceable performance standards and clear responsibility frameworks, ambitious government targets for indigenous aerospace and defence production risk remaining aspirational rather than achievable