With a notification issued on 1 October 2021, the Union government had announced the decision to dissolve the erstwhile OFB and constitute seven new DPSUs which would take over the operations of the 41 ordnance factories in the country and their allied facilities. Munitions India Limited (MIL), which is the largest among the seven DPSUs, took over the operations of the 12 factories involved in development, production, testing and marketing of ammunition and explosives for the armed forces and civilian entities.

In end-September, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the working of the seven DPSUs carved out of the OFB at a meeting organised in New Delhi to mark the completion of one year of their operations. The Defence Minister was briefed by the officials of Department of Defence Production on the progress made by these new DPSUs in the last one year and he also addressed the officers and employees of the seven companies virtually.

Listing various achievements of these DPSUs over the first one year of their operations, MoD said in a press statement that MIL has obtained export orders worth more than Rs 1,500 crore for various types of ammunition in the last one year. Officials said among these orders, one single order was of Rs 500 crore, one of the largest ever export order of ammunition by any Indian entity. Without naming particular countries, the MIL has said, “Our foreign customers include countries located in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The patronage we receive from our customers both in India and abroad reflects their faith in the quality of our products and services.”

The MIL group of ordnance factories includes Ammunition Factory Khadki, Cordite Factory Aruvankadu, High Energy Projectile Factory Tiruchirapalli, High Explosive Factory Khadki, Ordnance Factory Bhandara, Ordnance Factory Bolangir, Ordnance Factory Chanda Chandrapur, Ordnance Factory Dehu Road, Ordnance Factory Itarsi, Ordnance Factory Khamaria, Ordnance Factory Nalanda and Ordnance Factory Varangaon.

The 12 factories under the MIL are involved in production of small, medium and high calibre ammunition, mortars, rockets, hand grenades and also manufacturing of onitiatory explosives, propellants and explosives. The MoD said that MIL has also achieved a milestone as it successfully proof-fired new variants of Pinaka Rocket which is Pinaka Mk-I Extended Range and Dual Purpose Improvised Conventional Munitions (DPICM), which are specially designed warheads. MIL has also successfully developed 40 mm Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) ammunition, 500 kilogram General Purpose Bomb and various Super Rapid Gun Mount SRGM and High Explosive Dual Purpose Ammunition.

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They have been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), with technology being shared with the industry. This is the first time that rockets produced by the private sector have been accepted for service, since defence manufacturing has been opened to non-governmental players. The army has a large requirement for rockets of this class, which is pegged at over 1,000 units annually.

“The project showcases that the private sector can deliver when it comes to the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision. This has been possible with the continuous guidance of DRDO and hand-holding by the Army,” Satyanarayan Nuwal, EEL Chairman told ET.

In the past, munitions of this class have either been imported or have been manufactured by the public sector, which could never completely meet annual requirements of the armed forces. As reported, the armed forces have been looking at creating alternate sources for munitions to reduce dependency on state owned units that have had a mixed track record. Industry estimates peg that privately manufactured munitions of different varieties be significantly cheaper than fixed pricing offered by state owned entities.

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The Pinaka rocket system has been developed by ARDE, Pune supported by HEMRL, another Pune-based laboratory of DRDO.

The EPRS is the upgraded version of Pinaka variant which has been in service with the Indian Army for the last decade. The system has been upgraded with advanced technologies enhancing the range to meet the emerging requirements. After establishing the performance efficacy of the enhanced range version of Pinaka, the technology was transferred to the industries viz. Munitions India Limited (MIL) and Economic Explosives Limited Nagpur. Rockets manufactured by MIL under Transfer of Technology from DRDO were flight tested during this campaign. Different variants of munitions and fuzes which can be used in the Pinaka rocket system were also successfully test evaluated in the Pokhran Field Firing Range.

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