Big Boost To Indigenous Defence Manufacturing As DRDO Invites Private Firms For Missile, Bomb Projects

New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has extended an invitation to domestic private companies to collaborate on the development and production of missile and bomb weapon system projects within the MSS (missiles and strategic systems) cluster. This initiative aims to bolster the country's indigenous defence manufacturing capabilities.

The Expression of Interest (EoI) issued by DRDO seeks to identify and shortlist potential development-cum-production partners (DcPPs) for projects related to missiles and strategic systems. The Kanpur Lab of DRDO, in collaboration with UPTTI, is already involved in the large-scale production of systems such as Agni, Prithvi, and Akash missiles, as well as the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL), through partnerships with both public and private sector firms.

Shortlisted firms will be required to meet DRDO's technical, manufacturing, and infrastructure specifications before being considered for production-related responsibilities. Once selected, these companies will be eligible to respond to project-specific requests for proposals (RFPs). Their role will involve participating in the development, assembly, and integration of the DRDO projects, as well as being capable of undertaking the integration and qualification of the weapons designed and developed by DRDO.

Upon successful completion of development and user trials, the selected companies can collaborate with the supply chain identified by DRDO to fulfill production orders from the three armed forces.