Defence has been one of the loudest themes on Indian finance social media for two years. The structural story is genuine — but the way to use it is to understand what each listed company actually does, read its order book, and pay attention to the price you are being asked to pay. Here is the list, grouped by segment, and a framework for looking at any defence stock without the hype.
"Defence stocks" are listed companies that earn a meaningful share of revenue from the Indian armed forces and defence exports — mostly public-sector platform, electronics, missile and shipbuilding companies, plus a growing set of private players in components, systems and drones. The tailwinds (a rising acquisition budget, indigenisation lists, exports) are real. The catch: most defence PSUs and several private names re-rated to high valuations in 2023-24 and then corrected sharply, so the entry price matters as much as the order book.
A defence stock is not a formal category — there is no defence index filter on Screener.in the way there is for, say, "Nifty 50". In practice, investors use the label for companies where a large slice of revenue depends on:
Because the customer is mostly one entity and orders arrive in large, irregular chunks, defence behaves like a long-cycle capital-goods business: a fat order book, multi-year execution, and revenue that can be uneven quarter to quarter.
Grouped by what the business actually makes. This is a description of the sector, not a shortlist to buy — and it changes as new private companies list.
| Segment | Listed companies | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Aircraft, helicopters, engines | Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) | Designs, builds and overhauls fighter aircraft, trainers, helicopters and aero-engines; also does repair and overhaul for the air force. |
| Defence electronics, radar, EW | Bharat Electronics (BEL); Data Patterns; Astra Microwave Products; Paras Defence & Space Technologies; Centum Electronics | Radars, communication systems, electronic-warfare suites, sonars, missile electronics, avionics and optics for all three services. |
| Warships and submarines | Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders; Cochin Shipyard; Garden Reach Shipbuilders (GRSE) | Build destroyers, frigates, corvettes, submarines and support vessels for the navy and coast guard; Cochin Shipyard also does commercial ships and repair. |
| Missiles and munitions | Bharat Dynamics (BDL); Solar Industries India | BDL makes guided missiles, torpedoes and countermeasures. Solar Industries makes industrial explosives and, increasingly, defence ammunition, propellants and loitering munitions. |
| Artillery, armour, forgings | Bharat Forge (Kalyani group); BEML | Bharat Forge (via Kalyani Strategic Systems) makes artillery guns, protected vehicles and components. BEML makes military vehicles and equipment (and is also a railway supplier). |
| Engineering & diversified | Larsen & Toubro (L&T) | A large diversified engineering company with a sizeable defence arm — shipbuilding, artillery, missile systems, submarines and defence electronics — but defence is only part of the group. |
| Components, sub-systems, integration | MTAR Technologies; Apollo Micro Systems; DCX Systems; Unimech Aerospace | Precision components, electronic sub-systems, cable and wiring harnesses, and system integration that feed the larger platform makers. |
| Simulators & anti-drone | Zen Technologies | Combat training simulators and counter-drone systems for the army and paramilitary forces. |
| Drones / UAVs | ideaForge Technology; DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations | Small unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance and mapping, plus drone services and training. |
This is the single most important context. From roughly 2022 into 2024, Indian defence stocks — the PSUs especially — went through one of the sharpest re-ratings the market has seen in any sector. Order-book announcements, the indigenisation push and the export narrative pulled valuations from single-digit or low-teens price-to-earnings multiples to, in several cases, 40-70 times earnings. Then, through parts of 2024 and 2025, many of the same names corrected 25-50% from their peaks as the market re-set expectations and execution lagged the excitement.
None of that says the businesses are bad. It says the sector has already been "discovered", that a lot of good news is in the price for many names, and that buying a defence stock because it is a defence stock — after a vertical run — is exactly the mistake the 2024-25 correction punished. The theme can be real and the stock can still be expensive.
The order book is the headline number every defence company reports. What matters is the ratio of order book to annual revenue and its trend. A book that is 3-4x revenue and growing is a genuine multi-year runway; a flat book, or one padded with low-margin or slow-moving orders, is not. Check the execution history: how much of the book has the company actually converted to revenue over the last three years?
Some names are pure defence (HAL, BDL, the shipyards). Others — L&T, BEML, Bharat Forge, Solar Industries — are diversified, and defence is a growing but partial contributor. A diversified company gives you some cushion if the defence cycle slows; a pure-play gives you full exposure both ways. Neither is better; know which you are buying.
Two policy levers drive the domestic demand: the size of the defence capital-acquisition budget (and how much is ring-fenced for domestic procurement), and the positive indigenisation lists that phase out imports of specified items. Track the direction of both. A rising domestic capital budget and expanding indigenisation lists are the structural case; a flat budget year is a real headwind.
Defence exports have grown meaningfully over the last decade and are a genuine change in the story. When you read a company's disclosures, separate a recurring, multi-country export franchise from a single large one-time deal that flatters one year's numbers.
Not all defence revenue is equal. Electronics, missiles, munitions consumables and services tend to carry higher and more recurring margins. One-time platform builds (a batch of ships or aircraft) are lumpier and often thinner. A company shifting its mix toward electronics, spares and services is usually improving quality of earnings.
Defence receivables from the government can take a long time to collect, so the working-capital cycle matters. Look at return on capital employed over five years, debt levels, and whether operating cash flow actually tracks reported profit. A high order book with weak cash conversion is a warning sign. For the framework on this, see our guide to ROCE and the screening checklist.
Compare today's P/E and EV/EBITDA to the company's five-year range and to its growth rate. If a defence stock trades at 50x earnings on 15% expected growth, the bar for the business to clear is very high, and any execution stumble tends to be punished hard.
This guide deliberately quotes no share prices, because they are stale the moment they are written. For current prices, order-book figures and financials, use Screener.in (fundamentals and history), the NSE or BSE website (live quotes), and the company's own annual report and investor presentations (order book, revenue mix, guidance). Read at least the last two quarterly concall transcripts before forming a view.
India's defence spending is rising, the policy push to build at home is real, and exports are growing. All true. But a strong order book bought at a stretched valuation can still lose you money, and the 2024-25 correction showed how quickly a crowded theme can de-rate. The useful question is not "is defence a good sector?" — it is "is this company, at this price, a sensible risk for my portfolio?"
Defence stocks are listed companies that earn a material share of revenue from the Indian armed forces and defence exports. The universe is a mix of public-sector undertakings that build platforms, electronics, missiles and warships, plus a growing set of private companies in components, systems, simulators and drones. The investment case is tied to the government's capital-acquisition budget and the push to make more equipment in India, so it behaves like a long-cycle capital-goods and order-book story.
By segment: aircraft and helicopters — Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL); defence electronics, radar and electronic warfare — Bharat Electronics (BEL), Data Patterns, Astra Microwave, Paras Defence; warships and submarines — Mazagon Dock, Cochin Shipyard, Garden Reach Shipbuilders (GRSE); missiles and munitions — Bharat Dynamics (BDL), Solar Industries; artillery, protected vehicles and forgings — Bharat Forge (Kalyani group); engineering and diversified — Larsen & Toubro; components and systems — MTAR Technologies, Apollo Micro Systems, DCX Systems, Centum Electronics; simulators and anti-drone — Zen Technologies; drones — ideaForge, DroneAcharya. The list keeps growing as more private players list.
The structural drivers are real: a rising domestic acquisition budget, indigenisation lists that restrict imports, and growing exports. But most defence PSUs and several private names re-rated to very high valuations in 2023-24 and then went through sharp corrections. The theme being real does not make every stock a buy at every price — the entry valuation matters as much as the order book. Judge each company on its own numbers, not the sector narrative.
Concentration and lumpiness. A defence PSU often has one dominant customer (the Government of India), multi-year execution cycles, and order inflows that arrive in large, irregular chunks tied to budget decisions and procurement timelines. Revenue and margins can therefore be uneven quarter to quarter, working-capital cycles can stretch, and a delay in a big programme can move the stock a long way. Valuation risk is added on top when the sector is in favour.
There is no single defence filter on Screener.in, so start from the named list above and then apply a quality screen to each: order book to revenue (book-to-bill) and its trend, share of revenue from defence, return on capital employed, debt, the working-capital cycle, and the current valuation versus the company's own history. A screen narrows the field; reading the annual report and recent concall transcripts tells you whether the order book is converting to cash.
MultibaggerLab runs a daily rule-based scan across NSE and NASDAQ — base breakouts, relative-strength leaders, volume-demand setups — and flags sector names like defence when they qualify, with the reference price and invalidation level for each.
Disclaimer: MultibaggerLab is not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser or Research Analyst. Nothing here is investment advice or a stock recommendation. Company names are used only to describe what each business does. This is educational content only — always do your own research.