Global Arms Race Heats Up: How India’s Defence Push Is Powering a $7.5B Boom

India’s defence companies saw an 8.2% rise in 2024 arms revenues to $7.5B, driven by domestic orders, as New Delhi pushes indigenisation amid a record global arms market, SIPRI data shows.

New Delhi: India’s defence industry has posted solid growth within a rapidly expanding global arms market, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The three Indian companies listed in the SIPRI Top 100 increased their combined arms revenues by 8.2 per cent in 2024, reaching $7.5 billion, with the rise driven largely by domestic orders.

HAL Leads, BEL Records Biggest Growth

"The aggregate arms revenues of the three companies in India in the Top 100 rose by 8.2 per cent to $7.5 billion in 2024. Hindustan Aeronautics remained the biggest arms producer in India, with arms revenues of $3.8 billion, which were 0.3 per cent lower than in 2023. Bharat Electronics recorded the biggest increase in arms revenues among Indian companies in the Top 100. They went up by 24 per cent to $2.5 billion as a result of orders from the Indian government for radars and electronic warfare systems," the report stated.

The figures underline how New Delhi’s push for indigenisation and long-term military modernisation is feeding into the balance sheets of major Indian defence producers. While India’s footprint in the global Top 100 remains modest in scale, the upward trend signals a strengthening industrial base that is increasingly being tasked with meeting the armed forces’ equipment needs at home rather than relying on imports.

Global Arms Market Hits Record $679 Billion

The Indian numbers are part of SIPRI’s latest global assessment, which shows that revenues from arms and military services among the world’s 100 largest producers climbed by 5.9 percent in 2024 to a record $679 billion.

The think tank links this surge to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, heightened regional tensions and consistently rising military expenditure in many capitals.

“Last year global arms revenues reached the highest level ever recorded by SIPRI as producers capitalized on high demand,” said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. He cautioned, however, that efforts to expand production capacity are being tested by supply-chain difficulties and other constraints that could affect costs and delivery schedules.

US Dominates, Europe Surges, China’s Revenues Dip

The United States remained dominant, with 39 American companies in the Top 100 and combined arms revenues of $334 billion, while European firms (excluding Russia) together registered a sharp 13 per cent increase to $151 billion, driven by rearmament and support for Ukraine. South Korean and Japanese companies also reported strong growth, reflecting both export success and rising domestic procurement. By contrast, total revenues for Chinese firms in the ranking fell, as corruption probes and procurement disruptions hit the country’s arms industry.