Solar Group and Godrej to scale up Production of Pinaka Rockets to over 5000 per year

After Ordnance Factory, Chandrapur found it difficult to scale up production of the Pinaka rockets from 1,000 rockets in 2012 to 5,000 every year for the Indian Army, In 2016, Godrej & Boyce was roped in to design and develop a new automated assembly line for the production of Pinaka Rockets. New images of the Godrej & Boyce’s Pinaka assembly line at Ordnance Factory, Chandrapur was made available to media showcasing commencement of its full operations. The automated assembly will not only enhance the production capacity but would also be more efficient as it seeks to do away with most of the manual operations. The assembly line has automated safety features and facilities for monitoring the quality of production.

As India’s commitment in developing self-reliance in production across strategic sectors gathers speed, our business units are partnering with defense organizations like Ordnance Factories to engineer new automated solutions that will increase our def production” Jamshyd N Godrej.

Solar Group’s Economic Explosives Limited (EEL) soon could have the second line of an automated assembly line for the production of Pinaka Rockets after Army and DRDO successfully test-fired 6 Pinaka Rockets manufactured by them after Transfer of Technology (ToT) license granted from DRDO to EEL. EEL now can bid with Ordnance Factory, Chandrapur for future orders from the Indian Army, which till now was exclusively manufactured by the Ordnance Factory, Chandrapur since 2007.

Sources close to idrw.org have informed us that plans to scale Pinaka rocket production to 5000 per year were planned in 2012 when Ordnance Factory was able to manufacture only 1000 per year. EEL now can manufacture 3000 rockets per year alone which with Ordnance Factory will be able to surpass yearly requirements once orders start flowing. Over the years DRDO along with the Indian Army developed much more advanced Pinaka Mk-II with an improved range of 75km and Guided Pinaka with a range of 90km since the Indian Army wants to acquire 22 Pinaka regiments which needed scaling up of production as the older Grad MLRS regiments are retired.

Each regiment consists of three batteries of Pinaka launchers, Each Pinaka battery consists of six launcher vehicles, each with 12 rockets, six loader-cum replenishment vehicles, two command post vehicles with a fire control computer, and radar. At present Indian Army has around 16 Regiments which it wants to be around 22 in the next 3-4 years.

With additional manufacturing capabilities been established and available now, DRDO now plans to scout for the International buyers since the system is already cleared for Export by the Government of India and many countries have shown interest in the rocket in the past but talks could not be carried forward due to production constraints and bulk orders from the Indian Army.

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