The two countries also signed a new Memorandum of Arrangement on Maritime Security Cooperation, providing a wider operational framework for cooperation between the Indian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is examining a concurrent-production approach for the Tejas Mk2 that could allow a small number of pre-series fighters to enter manufacture before the aircraft completes its entire certification campaign. The strategy could help India compress the normally lengthy transition between flight testing and full-scale production, although reports of a six-to-eight-aircraft early batch have not yet been formally confirmed by the Indian Air Force or Ministry of Defence.
Under the agreement, BEL and Ananth Technologies will explore projects across several strategically important technology areas, including missile electronics, radar systems, satellite technologies and navigation equipment.
India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft programme is showing increasingly visible signs of transition from design engineering towards prototype manufacturing. Recent procurement activity by the Aeronautical Development Agency includes ultra-high-strength AerMet 100 aerospace steel, specialised composite lay-up tooling and a major industrial tender for development of the AMCA itself. Together, these developments point to the manufacturing ecosystem for India’s fifth-generation fighter beginning to take physical shape.
The company says its objective is to build systems from scratch so that it retains greater control over performance, efficiency and manufacturing.
The Indian Navy is steadily expanding deployment of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile across its frontline surface fleet, with recent reports indicating that the service is working towards ensuring widespread BrahMos availability aboard its principal destroyers, frigates and missile combatants by around 2030. While the Navy has not publicly announced a formal fleet-wide 2030 deadline, official Ministry of Defence decisions confirm a major programme to expand the missile across both existing and future warships.
The latest reports also indicate that an Armenian technical team could visit India for familiarisation with the missile system and related training activities. Such a visit could include interaction with the system’s developers and manufacturers and potentially exposure to its operational procedures.
The programme has also achieved another important milestone: 100% Transfer of Technology from the Russian partners has been absorbed by IRRPL, according to the company.
India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation is widening private-sector participation in missile and guided-weapon programmes by inviting Indian companies to become Development-cum-Production Partners for projects under its Missiles and Strategic Systems Cluster. The move could significantly expand the country’s industrial capacity for producing advanced indigenous weapons.
The Indian Navy is preparing the groundwork for a new generation of large indigenous guided-missile destroyers that would follow the Project 15B Visakhapatnam class. Often referred to in defence reporting as “Project 18”, the programme remains at the planning stage, but official statements from Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited indicate an initial requirement for four ships and a potential programme value in the ₹70,000–80,000 crore range.
