Expect Rs 25,000-crore order book by 2024, says BDL

Bharat Dynamics Ltd is expecting a total order book of Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years, its chairman and managing director Commodore Siddharth Mishra (retd)said Tuesday.

The defence public sector undertaking is developing third generation missiles and also looking at fourth and fifth generation ones in collaboration with other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), he told reporters here.

"We have the current order book of Rs 8,084 crore to be executed by 2023-24. We are expecting another Rs 8,000 crore in the next two years and we will have potential (expecting) orders of around Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years," Mishra said.

Barring one export order, all others came from the Indian defence forces, he said.

"Our exports will also grow and we have got feelers," he said.

The company has secured four orders from a friendly nation and is looking at other countries for exporting weapons, Mishra said.

"We have got clearence for exporting lightweight torpedoes, heavyweight torpedoes, ATGN and Milan- anti-tank guided missile," he said.

A few countries have evinced interest and on case-to-case basis approval would be obtained from the government and process of export would be initiated, he said.

BDL, which is celebrating its golden jubilee this year, has acquired land at Amravati in Maharashtra for manufacture of very short range missiles and the production unit - the company's fifth - once it starts getting orders.

The Hyderababad-headquartered company operates three manufacturing units - Hyderabad and in Bhanur (in Telangana) and one in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

In addition, BDL has created a facility for production and testing of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) at Ibrahimpatnam here, which has a one-of-its-kind static test facility for testing all kinds of rocket motors.

The company is currently manufacturing anti-tank guided missiles namely MILAN - 2T, Konkurs M, Invar, SAMs like Akash and MRSAM, underwater weapons like lightweight torpedo (TAL), the heavyweight torpedo (Varunastra), C 303 and counter measures dispensing systems for various aircraft platforms of the Indian AirForce, he added.

BDL is also manufacturing the seeker (own guidancein the form of seeker) based multirole air defence missile, the MRSAM (Medium Range Surface to Air Missile) which is being jointly developed by DRDO and IAI, Israel, he said.

In the years to come, BDL would primarily focus on