Avantel Wins ₹118 Crore DRDO Order to Build a Satellite-Comms Hub for the Navy

The Contract

Hyderabad-based Avantel Limited has secured a ₹117.88 crore order from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the development, installation and commissioning of a ground segment hub for secure voice and data communication, the company disclosed in a stock exchange filing around August 29, 2026. The contract carries an execution deadline of February 2029 and a 36-month warranty period once delivered.

Avantel is a Hyderabad-headquartered, publicly listed defence-electronics company that has spent over two decades building satellite and tactical communication systems for India's armed forces and space programme. Its product range spans satellite modems, secure radios, telemetry and tracking systems, and ground infrastructure for both defence and civilian satellite communication users, and its shares have moved repeatedly through 2026 on the back of a steady stream of government orders.

What a Ground Segment Hub Does

A satellite communication system is only as good as the ground infrastructure that anchors it. The "hub" DRDO has ordered from Avantel is the terrestrial control-and-relay point that ties together secure voice and data traffic moving over satellite links — the kind of infrastructure that lets military commanders maintain uninterrupted, jam-resistant communication across widely dispersed and often remote theatres of operation, from high-altitude border posts to naval task forces at sea. Reliable command-and-control communication of this kind is treated as a strategic capability in its own right, distinct from the satellites or radios at either end of the link.

Avantel's Niche

Avantel has built a specialised, if lower-profile, position in India's defence-electronics supply chain around satellite and tactical communications. The company has picked up a string of DRDO and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) orders over the past year, including smaller communications contracts, reflecting the steady drumbeat of India's push to indigenise the electronics that sit beneath larger weapons platforms. This latest award is substantially larger than Avantel's typical order size, marking one of its bigger single contracts from DRDO to date.

Part of a Larger Pattern

The order lands amid a broader wave of DRDO contracts flowing to private and listed Indian electronics companies for communications, sensing and command-and-control infrastructure — work that gets far less attention than missile tests or aircraft deals but is just as central to how India's armed forces actually operate day to day. For a company like Avantel, a multi-year DRDO contract of this size provides revenue visibility through the end of the decade and reinforces its position as a trusted supplier of secure defence-communication infrastructure, an area where India has historically relied on a small set of established players to deliver mission-critical, indigenously built systems.

Sources

• https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/avantel-bags-%E2%82%B9118-crore-drdo-contract-for-communication-hub/
• https://www.indiandefensenews.in/2026/08/avantel-secures-118-crore-drdo-contract.html
• https://www.defencestar.in/defence-news/avantel-secures-major-drdo-contract-as-indian-private-sector-eyes-isro-rockets/12576/