Defence Secretary Wants DRDO to Cut 37 Projects to About 10 and Hand Production to Industry

India's top defence bureaucrat has put a number on a debate that has run for years: how much should the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) do itself, and how much should it hand to industry?

The proposal: from 37 projects to about 10

Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh — who has also held additional charge as DRDO Chairman since 1 June 2026 — has said DRDO must reduce the number of projects it undertakes and concentrate on a smaller set of strategically important, cutting-edge technologies. According to reports published in late September 2026, including a WION interview and coverage by Indian Defence News, the organisation's portfolio of major programmes could be narrowed to about 10 priority programmes, down from around 37 at present.

His framing was blunt: DRDO should focus on technology research, while industry produces.

The stated objective is to stop scientific and financial resources from being spread too thinly across numerous initiatives — many of which, the reports note, have faced delays, shifting user requirements, or difficulty transitioning from laboratory prototypes to deployed military systems.

A bigger role for private industry — beyond the shop floor

The more consequential part of the proposal is what industry would take on. It is not limited to building DRDO-designed equipment under licence. The reported plan envisages private-sector participation across:

• design;
• systems integration;
• testing and certification;
• series production; and
• long-term maintenance and support.

Singh has also pointed to a greater role for private firms in missile system integration and in defence exports.

In this model, DRDO would be repositioned as a technology developer, standards-setter and national research institution, while private companies supply scale, manufacturing speed and commercial innovation. That is closer to the way defence research agencies in several other countries relate to their industrial base: the state funds and de-risks breakthrough technology, and industry turns it into products.

Why now

The proposal is the latest step in a sequence of reforms that have gathered pace through 2026.

• June 2026: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh unveiled DFP-2026, a new DRDO procurement framework intended to speed up strategic projects and simplify how the organisation buys from industry.
• August 2026: The Defence Minister approved the transfer of DRDO-developed technologies for conventional missile systems to Indian defence companies, a move expected to widen private participation in missile production.
• Strategic programmes: Separately, DRDO has invited private enterprises, through an Expression of Interest, to qualify as development-cum-production partners for strategic weapon programmes — work historically reserved for defence public sector undertakings.
• September 2026: The call to cut the project count sharply sets out the organisational consequence of those changes.

There is also mounting pressure from the users. Delays in major programmes have been publicly criticised by the services — the Indian Air Force chief has flagged that not a single defence project has been completed on time — and at a Tejas trainer handover in Bengaluru earlier this month the Defence Minister himself warned that delays can create capability gaps, escalate costs and even render technology obsolete before it reaches the armed forces. A leaner DRDO portfolio is one answer to that criticism.

What a narrower DRDO could look like

The reports do not list which ten programmes would survive, and no formal order has been published. But the logic points in a clear direction. The areas where DRDO's investment is hardest to replace are those with long gestation, high technical risk and little near-term commercial market — for example, advanced propulsion, hypersonics, directed-energy weapons, strategic systems, quantum technologies and compound semiconductors for radar and electronic warfare.

By contrast, mature systems — many classes of ammunition, radars, drones, vehicles and electronics — already have capable Indian manufacturers. Under the proposed approach, those would increasingly be designed, integrated and supported by industry, with DRDO acting as a technology source and certifying authority.

Early signs of the new model

Some of DRDO's recent activity already fits the "research, not production" template. Earlier in September, DRDO signed its first high-value deep-tech project agreement under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme with Zero mK India, a private company, to develop an indigenous 20-millikelvin dilution refrigerator for quantum technologies — cryogenic infrastructure that supports the National Quantum Mission and reduces dependence on imports. In that arrangement, DRDO sets the requirement and funds development, while industry builds the product and is positioned to supply it more widely.

Scaling that approach across the defence portfolio — with DRDO acting as funder, specifier and certifier, and industry as developer and manufacturer — is essentially what the Defence Secretary's proposal describes.

Risks and open questions

A shift of this scale raises practical questions that the reports leave open:

• Transition of existing programmes. Projects that are cut or handed over must not stall midway. Clear transfer mechanisms — for documentation, test data and personnel — will matter.
• Testing infrastructure. Private firms taking on integration and certification will need access to DRDO's ranges, wind tunnels and test facilities, or the ability to build their own.
• Intellectual property. Who owns improvements that industry makes to DRDO-origin designs, and how exports are licensed, will shape whether companies invest.
• Laboratory morale and talent. DRDO's scientists will need a compelling research agenda if the organisation is to retain its best people while its production-support role shrinks.

Why it matters

For India's defence-technology startups and private manufacturers, a leaner, research-focused DRDO would mean more opportunity — and more responsibility. For DRDO, it is a chance to concentrate on the frontier technologies where it has the greatest comparative advantage. For the armed forces, the hope is simpler: fewer programmes that overrun, and faster delivery of what is actually needed.

Sources

• https://www.wionews.com/videos/defence-secretary-drdo-must-focus-on-tech-research-while-industry-produces-1790417106875
• https://www.indiandefensenews.in/2026/09/defence-secretary-calls-for-drdo-to.html
• https://www.business-standard.com/amp/external-affairs-defence-security/news/rajnath-singh-unveils-dfp-2026-to-fast-track-strategic-drdo-projects-126062900693_1.html
• https://bharatshakti.in/mod-opens-drdos-conventional-missile-portfolio-to-private-industry/
• https://raksha-anirveda.com/drdo-opens-strategic-missile-production-to-private-industry/
• https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/not-a-single-defence-project-completed-on-time-iaf-chief-flags-systemic-delays
• https://theprint.in/defence/at-tejas-trainer-handover-rajnath-warns-delays-can-lead-to-technology-obsoletion/3046962/