India's Defence Technology: Aircraft, Radar and Space-Based Systems

India's defence establishment has spent the past three years pushing hard on indigenisation, and four threads now dominate the current-affairs cycle: fighter aircraft built at home, an indigenous radar-linked air defence network, dedicated military satellites, and a rewritten aviation law. UPSC tends to test these as plain facts (what a system does, who built it, and which force uses it), so that is the level of detail worth locking in.

HAL Tejas Mk1A and the AMCA

The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk1A is the upgraded, combat-ready version of India's indigenous fighter, built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and DRDO. In October 2025, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated HAL's third Tejas Mk1A production line, at HAL's Nashik division, taking HAL's total Tejas Mk1A capacity to 24 aircraft a year. The same Nashik division installed BrahMos missiles on Su-30 jets used during Operation Sindoor (May 2025). Government figures released alongside that event show how fast the indigenisation push has moved: annual defence production rose from ₹46,429 crore in 2014-15 to over ₹1.50 lakh crore in 2024-25, with a target of ₹3 lakh crore by 2029.

The next generation is the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), India's own fifth-generation fighter programme, cheaper to build indigenously than to import an equivalent aircraft. In May 2025, Rajnath Singh approved the AMCA's Programme Execution Model: the Aeronautical Development Agency will run the programme, but public and private Indian companies now get equal opportunity to bid, individually or as a joint venture or consortium, for the aircraft's development phase.

Project Akashteer: an indigenous radar and command network

Akashteer is India's fully indigenous, automated Air Defence Control and Reporting System, built by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) with DRDO and ISRO, under a ₹1,982 crore contract signed in March 2023. It forms the core of the Indian Army's Air Defence network, fusing data from Tactical Control Radar REPORTER, 3D Tactical Control Radars, Low-Level Lightweight Radar and the Akash Weapon System's own radar into one real-time picture, then automating the detection, tracking and engagement of enemy aircraft, drones and missiles. It sits inside the wider C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) framework, and links smoothly with the Air Force's IACCS and the Navy's TRIGUN, so all three services share one battlefield picture.

Akashteer had its proving moment during Operation Sindoor, on the night of 9 and 10 May 2025, when it detected and neutralised a barrage of Pakistani missiles and drones aimed at Indian military and civilian targets, a real-world validation that is exactly why this system keeps showing up in the current-affairs pool.

Space-based systems: the GSAT-7 military satellite series

Each armed service now flies a dedicated, ISRO-built communication satellite. GSAT-7 ("Rukmini") has served the Navy since 2013. GSAT-7A ("Angry Bird") followed for the Air Force in 2018. GSAT-7B, contracted to NewSpace India Limited (a Department of Space enterprise) in March 2023 for ₹2,963 crore, is being built for the Army as India's first five-tonne class military satellite, delivering high-throughput communication and better border surveillance. Most recently, ISRO launched GSAT-7R, also called CMS-03, for the Navy on 2 November 2025 from Sriharikota, an indigenously designed satellite weighing about 4,400 kg, India's heaviest communication satellite to date, built to extend secure links between ships, aircraft, submarines and maritime operations centres across the Indian Ocean Region.

Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024: rewriting civil aviation law

Not every "aviation" current-affairs item is a defence story. The Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024 replaces the colonial-era Aircraft Act, 1934. It was passed by Parliament in 2024 and came into force on 1 January 2025. The Act gives the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) a modernised legal footing, streamlines licence issuance, introduces a two-tier appeal mechanism, aligns Indian law with the Chicago Convention and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and is meant to encourage indigenous aircraft manufacturing under Make in India. This is civil aviation regulation, distinct from the defence systems above, and a common place for a statement-based question to test whether a candidate confuses the two.

Why this matters for the exam

• Keep each system tied to its owning service: Akashteer to the Army, IACCS to the Air Force, TRIGUN to the Navy, and the GSAT-7 series split three ways (GSAT-7 Navy, GSAT-7A Air Force, GSAT-7B Army, GSAT-7R Navy again).
• Separate the builders: HAL builds aircraft, BEL builds Akashteer's hardware (with DRDO and ISRO support), ISRO and NSIL build the satellites, and the DGCA regulates civil, not defence, aviation.
• Watch for a question that pairs a real capability with the wrong service or the wrong agency; that substitution is the standard trap in this cluster.

Quick revision points

• Tejas Mk1A: HAL's upgraded LCA; third production line (Nashik) opened October 2025, taking total capacity to 24 aircraft a year.
• AMCA: India's indigenous fifth-generation fighter; Execution Model (ADA plus public and private industry) approved May 2025.
• Akashteer: BEL-built, DRDO and ISRO-supported, the Army's Air Defence Control and Reporting System; proved itself during Operation Sindoor (9 to 10 May 2025); links to IACCS (Air Force) and TRIGUN (Navy) through the C4ISR framework.
• GSAT-7 series: Navy (GSAT-7, 2013), Air Force (GSAT-7A, 2018), Army (GSAT-7B, contracted 2023), Navy again (GSAT-7R / CMS-03, launched November 2025, India's heaviest communication satellite).
• Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024: replaces the Aircraft Act, 1934; in force from 1 January 2025; the DGCA's new statutory base.

Practice the questions below to see exactly how UPSC turns facts like these into statement-based traps.