Army obtains hand grenades from private firm

The defence ministry had signed a contract with Nagpur-based private firm Economic Explosives Ltd (EEL) last October for supplying 1 million multi-mode hand grenades to the army.

The Indian Army on Tuesday accepted the delivery of the first batch of multi-mode hand grenades, manufactured by a private sector firm, at a ceremony in Nagpur, with the move expected to provide thrust to the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), the defence ministry said in a statement.

Multi-purpose grenades figured on the first list of 101 types of weapons and ammunition whose import India will ban progressively over the next five years.

The defence ministry had signed a contract with Nagpur-based private firm Economic Explosives Ltd (EEL) last October for supplying 1 million multi-mode hand grenades to the army. These will replace a World War-II vintage hand grenade design being used by the army. EEL is expected to execute the order by October 2022.

The multi-mode hand grenade has been designed by Chandigarh-based Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratories (TBRL) — a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory — and produced by EEL.

The ceremony at Nagpur was attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh, army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane and DRDO chief G Satheesh Reddy. EEL chairman SN Nuwal handed over a scale replica of the grenade to the minister to mark the first delivery of ammunition from the private sector. Singh said the grenades were “a shining example” of public-private partnership to achieve self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

“Today is a memorable day in the history of the Indian defence sector. Our private industry is coming of age when it comes to defence production. It is an important milestone not only in the field of defence manufacturing, but also in achieving ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’,” Singh said.

Multi-purpose grenades figured on the first list of 101 types of weapons and ammunition whose import India will ban progressively over the next five years. The government published the list in August 2020. In May this year, the government notified a list of another 108 defence items that cannot be imported by the armed forces with the ban kicking off from December. The list, called the ‘positive indigenisation list’, will be implemented progressively from December 2021 to December 2025.

From raising foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence manufacturing to creating a separate budget for buying locally-made military hardware and notifying two lists of weapons/equipment that cannot be imported, the government has taken a raft of measures to boost self-reliance in the defence sector over the last two years.

The first list included artillery guns, missile destroyers, ship-borne cruise missiles, light combat aircraft, light transport aircraft, long-range land-attack cruise missiles, communication satellites, basic trainer aircraft, multi-barrel rocket launchers, a variety of radars, assault rifles, sniper rifles, mini-UAVs and different types of ammunition.

The second list consists of several military systems, including specified types of helicopters, next-generation corvettes, airborne early warning and Control (AEW&C) systems, tank engines, medium power radar for mountains, medium-range surface to air missile systems and anti-material rifles.

India had set aside ₹70,221 crore this year for domestic defence procurement, accounting for 63% of the military’s capital budget. Last year, the ministry spent over ₹51,000 crore, or 58% of the capital budget, on domestic purchases.

The defence minister commended the industry for indigenously developing defence products. “Such products are not just being produced but exported on a large scale. The number of online export authorisations during 2016-19 was 1,210. It has increased to 1,774 in the last two years. This has resulted in defence exports of over ₹17,000 crore in the last two years,” he said.