Bharat Forge's Kalyani Strategic Systems Signs With Thales to Build 70mm Rockets in India

A Belgian state visit, ten agreements

When Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on September 3, 2026, the two governments came away with ten separate agreements between Belgian and Indian defence companies, covering everything from mine warfare and autonomous maritime systems to counter-drone electronics, weapons, electro-optics, air-defence software and armoured vehicle systems. A Letter of Intent was also signed setting out a framework for structured cooperation between the two countries' armed forces — training exchanges, joint research and development, seminars, joint exercises and maritime-security cooperation. Belgium also used the visit to assure India that it would not extend defence cooperation, equipment or technology to Pakistan, a diplomatic reassurance that accompanied the commercial announcements.

Buried in that broader package was a narrower, more concrete deal: Thales and Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited (KSSL), the wholly owned defence arm of Bharat Forge, signed a strategic alliance to build 70-mm rocket systems in India.

What's actually being localised

Thales' 70-mm rockets are combat-proven hardware already in service with roughly 70 armed forces across 55 countries, and integrable across air, land and sea platforms — including India's own ALH-WSI and LCH helicopters, both indigenous platforms that currently rely on imported rocket armament. The KSSL alliance covers both unguided and laser-guided variants, giving India a locally built option for a rocket family it currently has to source from abroad, and one that Thales has continued to develop for newer roles: the company has separately been marketing a laser-guided 70-mm variant, the LGR275 Proxy, specifically for counter-drone use, a mission set that is becoming increasingly relevant to India's own air-defence planning.

The agreement sets out a framework for technology transfer, local production and distribution, with KSSL bringing its manufacturing, integration and testing capacity — including an upcoming Energetics facility in Andhra Pradesh — into the partnership. Neelesh Tungar, CEO of Kalyani Strategic Systems, framed the deal in terms that go beyond the Indian armed forces' own requirements: "Beyond strengthening the operational readiness of the Indian Armed Forces, it advances the vision of 'Make in India for the World,' positioning India as a globally competitive hub for advanced defence technologies." He added that combining Thales' proven rocket technology with KSSL's industrial base "lays the foundation for indigenous production of next-generation rocket systems."

The two companies are targeting a first fully domestically assembled rocket by early 2027 — an aggressive timeline for a technology-transfer deal signed only weeks earlier, and one that will be an early test of how quickly this specific alliance can move from paperwork to production.

Why a Belgian rocket-maker, and why now

The deal sits inside a broader pattern in India's defence-industrial strategy: rather than building every capability from scratch, Indian conglomerates are increasingly partnering with established foreign primes to localise specific, already-proven systems, using joint ventures to absorb technology faster than indigenous R&D alone would allow. Bharat Forge — through KSSL and its related joint venture Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems, built with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems — has run this playbook before, and the Thales tie-up extends the same approach to a rocket category India has historically imported rather than built domestically.

For Thales, the arrangement offers a foothold in a market where the Indian government has been steadily tightening local-content requirements on defence procurement, making manufacturing partnerships with Indian firms close to a precondition for staying competitive for future orders, rather than an optional route to market. For KSSL, it's a chance to add a validated, combat-proven rocket line to its portfolio without carrying the cost and years-long risk of developing one independently — with the further ambition, per Tungar's own framing, of manufacturing not just for India's own forces, but for export to the same roughly 70 countries that already operate Thales' rockets.

What to watch next

The Thales-KSSL deal is one line item among ten signed during a single state visit, which is itself a signal of how routine these industry-to-industry defence alliances have become as a mechanism for India to build out domestic manufacturing without waiting for indigenous R&D to catch up on every front simultaneously. Whether the early-2027 target for a first domestically assembled rocket holds will be the more immediate test — and whether KSSL's Andhra Pradesh Energetics facility comes online on a timeline that supports it — but the more strategically interesting question is whether this alliance becomes a template Bharat Forge and other Indian conglomerates repeat with other foreign primes across the remaining nine Belgian agreements and beyond.

Sources

• Belgium and India partner on local 70mm rocket assembly, wave of industry agreements — Breaking Defense
• Thales and Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited sign Strategic Alliance Agreement for 70-mm Rocket Systems — Thales Group
• Thales' combat-proven 70-mm rockets to be made in India; first one targeted for 2027 — The Week
• Belgium assures India on Pakistan defence ties as firms sign key pacts, including mine warfare — ThePrint
• Thales, KSSL Team Up to Produce Combat-Proven 70mm Rockets in India — The Defense Post