India looking to scale up military hardware exports

India has this year secured the biggest export order for military hardware worth Rs232 crore, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) chairman S.C. Bajpai said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In September, the United Arab Emirates placed an order with the state-run arms and ammunition maker for the supply of 40,000 pieces of a component used in Bofors artillery guns.

This is the biggest export order by value, which came amid India’s push to scale up exports of military hardware, Bajpai said.

Though the OFB started to export ammunition in 1989, the value of orders ranged between Rs30 crore and Rs35 crore, said other officials at the OFB, who asked not to be identified.

The UAE and several other countries are showing interest in goods manufactured by the OFB, Bajpai said.

Officials from the UAE are currently in India for trial of another component used in heavy artillery guns. The trials have been satisfactory, according to the unnamed OFB officials cited above.

The order from the UAE is a “big leap” in the OFB’s history, and the ammunition manufacturer is trying to secure more orders from the West Asian nation, one of them said.

However, supplying to the Indian armed forces remains the top priority of the OFB, Bajpai clarified.

 livemint