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Bharat Dynamics has secured a ₹1,348 crore order from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for Helina missile launchers and countermeasure dispensing systems. It adds to an already large order book, even as the company works through an operationally difficult year.
Order breakdown: Helina launchers and line replaceable units (₹1,109 crore) and countermeasure dispensing systems (₹238 crore).
Helina is homegrown and is designed to take out enemy armored vehicles and tanks from the air. Mounted on Indian Army helicopters (HAL Rudra and HAL Prachand helicopters), it gives ground forces an aerial strike option against armored threats.
The countermeasure systems help those same aircraft survive return fire by deflecting incoming missiles. Both are mission-critical.
The contracts run 24 to 60 months, so this flows into revenues gradually, instead of all at once.
Worth knowing: BDL had a tough FY26. Employee costs jumped from 16% to 22% of sales, margins compressed, execution slowed. But the order book tells a different story: ₹26,000 crore already in hand, and another ₹15,000 crore expected in FY27.
Two new manufacturing plants (in Telangana and UP's Defence Corridor) are being built specifically to handle this scale.
Broader perspective: the UAE is reportedly in talks to buy BrahMos and Akashteer. With this, BDL starts looking less like a domestic PSU and more like an export story in early innings.
So the incoming orders are healthy. Whether BDL can actually execute on them, given last year's operational struggles, is yet to unfold.
