Overview
- The Defence Ministry signed the contracts on Friday and awarded ₹1,013.77 crore to Tata Advanced Systems and ₹563.36 crore to NIBE for a total of 84 systems and 840 munitions.
- Tata will supply 54 systems and 540 munitions as the lowest bidder while NIBE will supply 30 systems and 300 munitions under a fast‑track ‘Buy Indian’ procedure.
- Each loitering munition system is rated to reach roughly 100 km and is specified for resilience against jamming and spoofing to operate in electronically contested environments.
- The contracts require 60% overall indigenous content with at least 50% local materials, components and software, and set delivery within 12 months of advance payment.
- Officials and industry sources say this order is an initial tranche of a much larger plan to induct thousands of one‑way attack drones and to position India as a drone‑manufacturing hub by 2030.