Ordnance units upbeat, set high export targets

In a bid to boost defence exports the Indian ordnance factories have set a target of $20 million, after achieving exports worth $13 million in the last financial year.

Speaking after the conclusion of the two-day General Manager’s Conference of the Ordnance Factories, Deepak Dutta, director general and chairman of the Board said that they had earmarked several products to hike exports to ‘‘friendly countries’’. Presently Indian pistols, rifles, mortars and ammunition was finding its way into the international arms market, but was too little to make a major dent on the international scene.

According to Dutta a road map for modernising the factories had also been prepared. An in-house research and development team had also been put together by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) as a part of the modernisation process. ‘‘We have upgraded the L/70 air defence gun and sent it for user trials by the services,’’ Dutta said. It is also indigenously upgrading the 130 mm and 105 mm artillery guns and mine-protecting vehicles.