Industry needs to focus on primary ammunition ingredients: Defence Production Secretary

Indian companies have not been able to focus on producing primary ingredients that are required for manufacturing ammunition and there is an urgent need to generate capacities that can cater not only for domestic requirements but export orders as well, a top defence ministry official said on Wednesday.

In an address to leading ammunition manufacturers of the country, secretary defence production Sanjeev Kumar said that after interaction with both public and private sector companies in May, it was realised that there was not adequate focus on making primary ingredients.

The official was referring to a series of meetings that the defence ministry held with defence companies in the lead up and aftermath to Operation Sindoor in May, during which options to surge production and provide expedited deliveries to the armed forces were discussed. "When we interacted with the private sector and also public sector during the month of May, then one thing I realised (was) that many of us are not able to concentrate the focus on the primary ingredients which are required in manufacturing of ammunition," Kumar said at a seminar organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.


He added that the reason for this could be the gestation period required to set up such capacities as well as the large capital expenditure required. The official said that relying on the capacity of defence public sector units, like Munitions India Limited, is also not fruitful, as they also do not have adequate capabilities as of now.

"So we need to equally concentrate on the entire value chain of the ammunition, right from the ingredients which are necessary to make propellant, and also the primer or the explosives, so that we can meet the emerging need of not only our country, but also elsewhere," Kumar said, referring to the potential of exports. He asked the industry to work on creating capacities that can be used to surge production when needed, making the point that in the current geopolitical context, it is imperative to be self-reliant.