India’s push to build indigenous drones and counter-drone systems is moving from policy support to actual defence purchases, bringing a range of listed companies into focus. After PM Modi’s recent push during the I-day speech, the focus is on key plays in this sector.
Six companies represent different parts of this procurement cycle. NIBE is tied directly to the August 14 India Army order for loitering-munition systems. Zen Technologies has sizeable counter-drone contracts. ideaForge is a direct UAV manufacturer that is developing attack drones and loitering munitions. Data Patterns is supplying radar, electronic intelligence and jamming technology. Bharat Electronics brings scale in radar, electronic warfare and directed-energy systems. Paras Defence has businesses spanning anti-drone systems, drone platforms and payloads.
On August 14, the Ministry of Defence signed contracts worth about Rs 1,577 crore for loitering-munition systems for the Indian Army. The following day, on August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort, called for India to develop indigenous drones and counter-drone systems and build the ability to supply such technologies to the global market.
The government had already begun approving purchases across both sides of the drone market. On July 3, the Defence Acquisition Council cleared capital-acquisition proposals worth about Rs 52,000 crore, including the Army’s Akash Tarang anti-UAV electronic warfare system, a jet-based kamikaze drone system and a Naval Shipborne Unmanned Aerial System. The Defence Ministry said Akash Tarang would protect Army formations against UAV threats. These were Acceptance of Necessity approvals rather than signed contracts.
Zen’s EBITDA margin was 40.9% in Q1 FY27. ideaForge’s revenue rose 436.7% year on year, although its gross margin fell to 49% and it remained loss-making at the net level. Data Patterns had Rs 530 crore of cash, bank balances and investments and no net debt at June 30. Paras Defence reported 38% revenue growth and 40% growth in consolidated net profit in Q1 FY27.
NIBE is the only listed company among the six with a signed contract inside the Rs 1,577 crore Army package. On August 14, 2026, its Regulation 30 filing said the Indian Army had placed a Rs 563.35 crore order for 30 sets of loiter-munition systems comprising 300 loitering munitions, along with testing equipment and accessories. The procurement falls under the Buy Indian category.
In a separate filing the same day, NIBE identified the platform as Vayuastra, described itself as the L2 vendor, and said the purchase was being made through the Fast Track Procurement route. The order is significant relative to the company’s recent operating scale. Q1 FY27 revenue was around Rs 63 crore and the company reported a net loss of roughly Rs 12-13 crore. NIBE also announced a Rs 1,346.69 crore preferential issue on August 14.
The contract gives NIBE the strongest near-term revenue visibility among the six, but it comes alongside a weak latest quarter and a sizeable capital raise. The crucial part of the story is therefore not simply the order value, but how quickly the company can manufacture, deliver and convert the contract into reported revenue.
Zen Technologies sits on the other side of the battlefield. Its Q1 FY27 presentation lists anti-drone systems, loitering munitions, an AI-powered anti-drone system and the Hyperstrike interceptor drone among its products.
As of June 30, 2026, Zen had a consolidated order book of Rs 1,239.02 crore, comprising Rs 920.59 crore of equipment and Rs 318.43 crore of AMC. That figure covers the wider business and is not a counter-drone order book.
The counter-drone business has, however, generated sizeable contracts. Across filings made during 2026, Zen disclosed a Rs 332 crore C-UAS order, a Rs 245 crore anti-drone upgrade order and a Rs 37 crore hard-kill anti-drone order. Taken together, they represent Rs 614 crore of identifiable counter-drone contracts, although the orders were announced at different points and cannot be treated as today’s outstanding order book.
Zen’s case is stronger on actual counter-drone business than on a generic “defence theme” narrative. The company is already selling systems designed to detect, disrupt and neutralise hostile UAVs, with its broader order book providing an execution base outside the drone segment as well.
ideaForge is the most direct UAV manufacturer in this group. Its investor presentation says its aircraft had crossed 1 million cumulative customer missions, while defence accounted for 60% of Q1 FY27 revenue.
The company entered FY27 with an order book of Rs 314.2 crore and had Rs 256.8 crore remaining at June 30 after executing more than 20% of the opening book during the quarter.
The bigger development is the move into more demanding military applications. Management said the company continued developing long-range attack platforms and loitering munitions for upcoming Ministry of Defence opportunities. ZOLT has moved into series production for open MoD orders. The company also cited a planned Rs 20,000 crore MoD drone procurement programme through Fast Track Procurement, with the first tender issued.
ideaForge is therefore a direct UAV play, but the company has not said how much of the Rs 256.8 crore order book comes specifically from combat drones or loitering munitions. It also has no disclosed participation in the August 14 NIBE/Tata Army contract.
Data Patterns is approaching the counter-drone market through the systems underneath the final platform. Management has described three areas: active detection through radar, passive detection through electronic and communication intelligence, and jamming.
During the Q1 FY27 earnings call, management said the company had already started receiving counter-drone orders and expected the business to generate more contracts over the following three to six months. It also expects several hundred crore rupees of counter-drone contracts during FY27, although management said that opportunity is not included in its current revenue projections or Rs 2,000 crore fresh order-inflow guidance.
The Rs 2,654 crore figure includes negotiated contracts and July orders. The booked order book at June 30 was Rs 920 crore.
Data Patterns therefore offers exposure to radar, electronic intelligence and jamming rather than to the airframe itself. Its counter-drone opportunity is already producing orders, but the contribution is not yet separately visible in reported revenue.
BEL’s connection to drones is through counter-UAS, radar, electronic warfare, jamming and directed-energy systems. Unlike NIBE or ideaForge, it does not depend on drone manufacturing for its core business.
In Q1 FY27, BEL reported revenue from operations of Rs 5,533.06 crore and PAT of Rs 1,048.33 crore. Its order book stood at Rs 72,258 crore on July 1, 2026. (bel-india.in)
BEL management has said the company is working on detection, soft-kill, hard-kill, laser and microwave-based counter-drone solutions. It also said BEL already has orders for its 2-kilowatt laser-based directed-energy weapon, with around 80% supplied.
BEL offers financial scale that none of the other companies can match, but the drone theme is only one component of its much larger radar, missile, communications and electronic-warfare portfolio.
Paras Defence has a broader drone connection than a simple anti-drone product line. Its 2026 investor presentation identifies Paras Anti-Drone as a dedicated subsidiary covering radars, radar sub-systems, software-defined radios, phased-array antennas and anti-drone systems.
Its operations also extend to the drone platform itself through Paras Aerospace and Paras Heven Drones, while the wider portfolio includes drone cameras and EO/IR systems.
The company’s Q1 FY27 results, announced on August 7, 2026, showed revenue from operations rising 38% year on year to Rs 128 crore. EBITDA grew 44% to Rs 32 crore and PAT rose 40% to Rs 21 crore from Rs 15 crore a year earlier. The EBITDA margin improved to 24.77% from 23.66%.
The approximately Rs 98.6 crore figure is calculated from Paras Defence’s disclosure that anti-drone accounted for 10% of its Rs 986 crore order book at March 2026.
Paras has already seen a sharp run in 2026, which means the stock’s current performance has to be viewed alongside the stronger earnings numbers and the wider valuation context.
Astra Microwave is not among the six names, but it is a relevant secondary stock for the theme. Its August 10, 2026 investor presentation lists anti-drone, electronic warfare, satellites, SDRs and electro-optics among its strategic focus areas and identifies UAV tracking as one of its telemetry applications.
Its standalone order book was Rs 2,156 crore on June 30, 2026, of which 71.3% was defence/public-sector business. Q1 FY27 standalone revenue was Rs 176 crore, EBITDA Rs 33 crore and PAT Rs 10 crore. The company received Rs 172.6 crore of orders during the quarter, including Rs 93.6 crore of radar orders from BEL.
Astra has demonstrated counter-drone technology, but it has not separately disclosed the value of an anti-drone order book or drone revenue, making it a broader radar and electronic-warfare play rather than a direct beneficiary of the current Army contract.
Astra Microwave, as the additional indirect name, has a one-year return of 74.02% and a June 30 standalone order book of Rs 2,156 crore, but its drone-specific order value remains undisclosed.
The Rs 1,577 crore Army purchase is directly relevant to NIBE and Tata Advanced Systems. The wider Rs 52,000 crore acquisition pipeline gives the other companies different avenues into attack drones, counter-UAS, radar and electronic warfare. The next stage will be decided by signed contracts and execution, not by the size of the policy announcement alone.