From prototype to deployment: What will it take for India’s deep-tech startups to scale defence technologies?
By Satyabrata Satapathy, Co-founder & CEO, BonV Aero
India’s defence industrial base has never been larger. Annual defence production reached a record ₹1.78 lakh crore in FY 2025–26, up 15.6% year-on-year. The private sector accounted for approximately 24%, or ₹42,000 crore, while defence exports touched a record ₹38,424 crore, according to the Ministry of Defence. Startups are now an increasingly visible part of this growth. Yet anyone who has built hardware for the armed forces knows the hardest distance in defence technology isn’t from idea to prototype. It is from prototype to a product soldiers can rely on, every day, in every condition.
The numbers illustrate the challenge. Since its 2018 launch, Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) has brought about 676 startups, MSMEs, and individual innovators into India’s defence innovation ecosystem. As of February 2026, 548 contracts had been signed and 566 challenges launched.
Of these innovations, 58 prototypes received...
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