Gopalan Aerospace to scale drone output to 500 a month; Rs 75 crore spent of Rs 100 crore plan

Bengaluru: The aerospace arm of Gopalan Enterprises, Gopalan Aerospace India (GAIPL), plans to raise its drone output from about 25 units a month to 500 within a year, company director C Prabhakar said on Wednesday.

Of the five product lines the company is developing, two are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) now in serial production, Prabhakar told ET. The UAVs have a range of 50 to 80 km. He described them as loitering munitions, or kamikaze drones that strike a specific target.

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"We have the technology. What we are now working on is how to scale production," Prabhakar said. "We have set up the factory system for large-scale production."

This comes as the company opened a new production line at its Hoskote facility in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The line adds capacity for higher-value aerospace, defence and space programmes.

GAIPL announced in early 2025 that it would invest Rs 100 crore over three years. Prabhakar said the company has spent about Rs 75 crore so far, including in the plant and expects to complete the deployment by March next year.

The 10.5-acre Hoskote facility has more than 150,000 sq ft of manufacturing space and represents about $40 million in investment. The plant offers precision CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, advanced composites, aerostructures and complex assemblies. It builds to customer print and specification.

GAIPL's aerospace business earns about $20 million a year. The company targets 50% annual growth over the next three to five years and expects Hoskote to generate about $50 million a year at full capacity.

The company has also been talking with international technology companies about UAV and drone collaboration, technology transfer, joint development and manufacturing.

Karel Havlíček, Czech deputy prime minister and minister of industry and trade, attended the launch. GAIPL also signed five memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Czech partners covering fire-extinguishing solutions, UAVs including fixed-wing drones and quadcopters, thermoreflective coatings, unmanned traffic management and jet-powered UAVs.

The scope and commitments of these agreements will depend on agreed terms and further talks, and the company has not yet disclosed them.