India Needs Private Sector In Dual-Use Ballistic Missiles

Private companies — Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Mahindra, Kalyani Group, Adani Defence & Aerospace and others — already manufacture drones, artillery guns, high-explosive ammunition, aircraft structures, communication systems and radars. Now, they can also manufacture conventional missiles.

While reducing import dependence and strengthening India’s indigenous defence capabilities were the deciding factors, the rapid consumption of missile inventory during the four-day Operation Sindoor, the critical role missiles have played in the Russia-Ukraine and US-Iran wars, and the Pakistan and China threat were more important reasons

Ballistic and cruise missiles, however, could play a decisive role in a war, especially during the opening salvo when targets deep inside the enemy territory need to be hit.

India could allow private firms to manufacture nuclear ballistic and cruise missiles under strict supervision and control of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and DRDO, which can continue to research, design, and manufacture nuclear warheads. This would also reduce the load on Bharat Dynamics Limited, the sole manufacturer of tactical and strategic missiles.  

Why Restriction On Strategic, Tactical Missiles

There’s no logic in not permitting private firms to manufacture dual-use ballistic missiles, like Agni and Prithvi, which are both conventional and nuclear.

Except for the LR-LACM (1,500 km but subsonic), all other conventional missiles that private firms can produce are short-range and not ballistic. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky was requesting the West to allow Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia using the Franco-British Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG long-range cruise missile (550 km) and the MGM-140 Army Tactical (ballistic) Missile System (ATACMS, 300 km). 

In 2024, Ukraine fired the ATACMS from an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to destroy two S-300/S-400 air defence systems near Belgorod city.

The US fired a salvo of BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (2,500 km), Precision Strike Missiles (500 km), and ATACMS against Iran in the first few days of the West Asia conflict.

Similarly, Iran used MRBMs to target US military bases in West Asia: Kheibar Shekan (1,450 km), Shahab-3 (1,300 m), Emad (1,800 km), and Khorramshahr (3,000 km).

Iran’s use of ballistic missiles has important lessons for India. Iranian missile and drone strikes at US military bases caused losses running into billions.

India should have taken into account the China threat factor in allowing the private sector to make conventional missiles.

China has the world’s largest and most varied stockpile of ballistic and cruise missiles. According to the Pentagon, China had around 3,150 ballistic missiles and 300 ground-launched cruise missiles as of 2024, an increase of 147% and 50%, respectively, from 2015. China’s missile inventory has definitely increased in the last two years.

Chinese Private Firm Builds Hypersonic Cruise Missile

In China, private firms were allowed to manufacture key missile components way back in 2013, the year Xi Jinping became president. 

By 2025, the number of such companies jumped to 81 from 32 in 2013, including 22 that build key components for both cruise and ballistic missiles and another 15 that make important parts only for cruise missiles.

However, the Central Military Commission controls the supply chains and production of strategic nuclear weapons, with only the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation producing strategic N-missiles. 

Even the production of cruise missiles, SAMs and short-range tactical ballistic missiles was the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation’s monopoly until last year. 

For the first time, the Beijing-based private aerospace company Lingkong Tianxing Technology developed a hypersonic missile system, the YKJ-1000, in November 2025. The missile (1,300 km and Mach 7), which is being mass-produced, will have a variant integrated with artificial intelligence and swarm coordination capabilities.

US Firms Make N-Missiles Except Warheads

In the US, which doesn’t have state-owned defence manufacturing companies, private firms manufacture complete ballistic and cruise missiles. 

The top five defence giants are Lockheed Martin, RTX Corporation, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Boeing Defense.

Though these companies don’t build nuclear warheads, they manufacture the delivery rocket, casing, guidance system, and other components. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman manufacture nuclear warhead delivery systems — missiles, submarines, and strategic bombers.

For example, Boeing makes the nuclear LGM-30 Minuteman III ICBM and AGM-86B Air-Launched Cruise Missile, and Lockheed Martin manufactures the Trident II D-5 SLBM.

However, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a branch of the Department of Energy (DOE), researches, designs, produces, and maintains the nuclear warheads.

Pantex, the main facility where nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled, is managed and operated for the DOE by private PanTeXas Deterrence and NNSA-owned Sandia National Laboratories. 

NNSA labs are government-owned and operated by private corporations and academic institutions under strict supervision and control. 

(The writer is a columnist and journalist. Views expressed are personal.)