Bharat Electronics Limited

The Bharat Electronics Limited was established by India’s Ministry of Defense in 1954. The company designs and manufactures “state-of-the art electronic equipment/components” for India’s defense services, paramilitary organizations, and other government agencies such as the Department of Space, Department of Telecommunications, Police Wireless, Meteorological Department, and the Airport Authority of India. In addition, BEL supplies electronic components to companies in the private sector. BEL has nine manufacturing units in India (Panchkula, Ghaziabad, Kotdwara, Taloja, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, and Machilipatnam); the company also maintains overseas offices in Singapore and New York.

Starting with the Bangalore unit, research and development units have been established in all the units in each product area. The company’s annual turnover in the FY 2021-22 was $1.81 billion. BEL invests 5% of its annual turnover on research and development activities. It has established Central Research Laboratories in Bangalore and Ghaziabad; the laboratories focus on research in the areas of signal processing, computing, radars, communications systems, materials and devices, micro-electronics, and manufacturing technologies. In order to reduce the cycle time and costs for developing new products, BEL has concluded alliances with several national research laboratories and other laboratories of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). In addition, BEL also has extensive collaborative arrangements with companies in Switzerland (Oerlikon Contraves); Norway (Norcontrol); United States (Scientific Atlanta/Northrop Grumman); Israel (Elta/Elbit); France (Matra Defense Equipments & Systems/Sextant/Thompson Tube Electronic); Sweden (Ericsson); South Africa (Elopotro); Netherlands (Signaal); and Russia (INROS).

BEL designs and manufactures:

• “State-of-the-art products in the field of radars, defense communications, sound and vision broadcasting, opto-electronics, information technology products, and electronic components.”
• Radars for defense applications in the Army, Air Force, and Navy. These include “surveillance, fire control, tracking, and navigation” systems. The “frequency band covered extends from C band up to Ka band.” BEL also offers networking of radars.
• Sonar systems for naval surface ships, submarines, and aircraft.
• “Critical components” for the DRDO such as “semiconductor electron tubes, passive devices, microwave components, and batteries.”
• Missile ground and flight instrumentation systems such as signal conditioners that provide interface between missile sensors/transducers (pressure, acceleration, strain, temperature, vibration, acoustic noise, and electric inputs), and telemetry systems.
• Dry-tuned gyros and macro accelerometers for the Prithvi and Agni programs. BEL also produces fiber optic gyros of an “open-loop design.”
• Components of the radio altitude switch for the Prithvi missile warhead.
• Servo electronics unit and the control and guidance computer for the Nag anti-tank guided missile.
• Command transmitters for the naval version of the Trishul short-range surface-to-air missile.
• Defense communications equipment such as “high-frequency transmitters and transreceivers, V/UHF communications equipment, troposcatter systems, military switching and datacom products, and encryption equipment.”
• The company has the expertise to design command, control, communications, and intelligence systems that “operate in real time and integrate all sensors for data acquisition in a multi-threat environment.” In addition, it also has facilities for “carrying out computer controlled automatic testing, climatic environmental tests, electro-magnetic interference, and electro-magnetic compatibility tests.”