2 weeks ago
Indian firms power Boeing, Lockheed Martin global defence supply chains
India is a big country that used to buy airplanes from companies in the United States.
Now Indian companies are helping to build parts for those airplanes.
Companies like Tata, HAL, BEL and Dynamatic make parts for planes made by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Some of those parts go into planes sold to customers all around the world.
Tata makes the tails for C-130J cargo planes, and Dynamatic makes special cabinets for P-8 patrol planes.
It started with a rule India made in 2005 that foreign companies selling big defence deals had to invest in Indian factories.
Later, deals to buy C-130J, C-17 and Apache aircraft helped Indian companies join the global supply chains.
By 2024, Tata Boeing Aerospace had built the 300th Apache helicopter body, with most parts made in India.
Now the same thing is starting with European companies like Airbus, Dassault and Rheinmetall.
So India has moved from just buying planes to making important parts for planes used by customers everywhere.
Kotak Institutional Equities reports India's defence relationship with the US is extending beyond military platform purchases, with Indian firms supplying critical components for Boeing and Lockheed Martin's global production programmes.
The US has become India's largest defence export market, accounting for roughly half of India's defence exports, with about $2.8 billion in defence goods exported between FY2019 and FY2024.
Dynamatic Technologies is the sole global supplier of power and mission cabinets for the P-8 Poseidon (over 1,000 sets delivered) and has delivered more than 75 aft pylons and cargo ramps for the Chinook helicopter.
Tata is the single global source of C-130J Super Hercules empennages and the world's sole producer of S-92 helicopter cabin components, while Tata Boeing Aerospace manufactures Apache fuselages.
India's 2005 defence offset policy and its 2010 C-130J, 2011 C-17 and 2015 Apache deals built these supply-chain ties, and a similar pattern is now emerging with European companies such as Dassault, Airbus and Rheinmetall.
- Who
- Indian defence manufacturers — Tata, HAL, BEL, Dynamatic Technologies, Rossell Techsys and SASMOS HET — and US firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin, according to a Kotak Institutional Equities report.
- What
- Indian companies are emerging as suppliers of critical components that feed into Boeing and Lockheed Martin's global production programmes, rather than merely importing military platforms.
- Where
- India, including Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and the United States.
- When
- The shift was highlighted in Kotak's July 2026 report; exports to the US totalled about $2.8 billion between FY2019 and FY2024.
- Why
- Because India's defence offset policy (introduced in 2005) and major aircraft purchases in 2010, 2011 and 2015 created manufacturing relationships that expanded into global supply chains.
Key facts
- Report
- Kotak Institutional Equities sector report, July 2026
- India's largest defence export market
- United States (roughly half of India's defence exports)
- Defence exports to US (FY2019-FY2024)
- About $2.8 billion
- Offset policy introduced
- 2005, with an initial 30% reinvestment requirement
- Dynamatic Technologies (P-8 Poseidon)
- Sole global supplier of power and mission cabinets; over 1,000 sets delivered
- Tata (Lockheed Martin)
- Single global source of C-130J empennages; over 250 tail assemblies delivered by 2025
- Apache fuselage programme
- Tata Boeing Aerospace sole global source; 300th fuselage produced in 2024; Indian MSMEs roughly 90% of sourcing
- Rossell Techsys
- Over 100,000 wire harnesses and electrical panels delivered since 2013
Sources
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