Solar Defence and Aerospace Delivered 450 Nagastra-1R Loitering Munitions to the Indian Army on 13 and 14 October 2026 Under a June 2025 Emergency Order

Solar Defence and Aerospace Limited (SDAL), a subsidiary of Solar Industries India with its base in Nagpur, delivered 450 Nagastra-1R loitering munitions to the Indian Army on 13 and 14 October 2026, according to GKToday. A loitering munition is a small drone that flies to an area, circles while an operator looks for a target, and then dives onto it. The Week, reporting on 13 October, described the batch as the largest single-batch supply of such weapons to the Army.

The order was placed in June 2025 under the Army’s emergency procurement route, and the system is built on a design that Solar Industries first put into Army hands in 2024. This article sticks to what the opened sources document about the procurement and the technology. It does not describe any use in combat.

What was delivered, and who says so

The Week, GKToday and a report by the news agency ANI all give the quantity as 450. GKToday dates the handover to 13 and 14 October 2026. ANI, in a piece published on 14 October, says SDAL “completed the delivery” and quotes the company calling it its largest single-batch supply of the system. As of 29 October 2026 the opened sources do not include a statement from the Army itself, so the account rests on the company’s release and the press reports built on it.

The Week and the Indian Masterminds site both say the order was placed under emergency procurement, the fast-track route that the ministry says exists to close urgent capability gaps.

The June 2025 emergency order

On 24 June 2025 the Ministry of Defence announced that it had concluded thirteen contracts under the Emergency Procurement mechanism, worth ₹1,981.90 crore, against a sanctioned outlay of ₹2,000 crore for the Indian Army. The Press Information Bureau release lists loitering munitions, including vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) types, among the items, along with drone-detection systems, radars, air-defence missiles, body armour and night sights. It does not name vendors or give a per-item breakdown, so the ₹1,981.90 crore is the total for all thirteen contracts and not the price of the Nagastra-1R order.

SDAL’s own announcement of its Army order came in the same days. News Arena, writing on 23 June 2025, said the order for approximately 450 Nagastra-1R units “was confirmed through an official statement” from SDAL. Nagpur Today, a day later, reported that the order was made under the Army’s emergency procurement powers.

The ministry’s release says the purchases reflect its commitment to equip the Army with “completely indigenous systems” and calls the emergency route a key enabler for the timely induction of equipment.

A four-firm trial in March 2025

GKToday and Indian Masterminds both say technical trials were held in March 2025 and that four companies took part. The Week and the ANI report say SDAL was the only one that demonstrated all the required operational parameters. ANI attributes that statement to SDAL, and the sources do not include the Army’s trial report or the names of the other three firms.

The Week adds that performance and target-hit accuracy were checked through several live trials before the order was placed. News Arena reports that the Nagastra-1R was tested in several kinds of terrain, including high-altitude Ladakh and Babina, near Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. No dates were given for those tests.

What the Nagastra-1R is reported to carry

The specifications below come from press reports of the company’s description. None of the opened pages links to a manufacturer data sheet.

• Indigenous content above 80 per cent, up from above 75 per cent in the earlier Nagastra-1. GKToday and IDRW both attribute the figure to SDAL officials.
• A short-range kamikaze strike role, with an option to abort the attack and recover the munition (The Week, GKToday, ANI).
• A 360 degree gimbal camera, with an optional thermal camera for night use (The Week, News Arena).
• Encrypted video and telemetry links (The Week, News Arena).
• A circular error probable of about 2 metres, meaning that half of strikes are expected to land within a 2 metre circle of the aim point (The Week, News Arena).
• A fully reusable launcher (The Week, News Arena). Indian Masterminds adds that the drone itself is a single-use strike munition.

Published range figures do not agree. India TV’s report on the June 2025 order lists a strike range of up to 5 km, while Nagpur Today, citing unnamed sources, gives 15 km with an operator in the loop and 30 km in autonomous mode, plus a loiter time of up to one hour. The October 2026 delivery reports from The Week and GKToday give no range, endurance or warhead weight, and this article does not choose between the earlier figures.

From Nagastra-1 to the 1R

Nagastra-1 was the first of the family to reach the Army. ANI reported on 14 June 2024 that the Army had ordered 480 units from Economic Explosives Limited, a Solar Industries subsidiary, under an emergency purchase. After pre-delivery inspection on 20 to 25 May 2024, the first 120 went to the ammunition depot at Pulgaon. The same report gave the Nagastra-1 as a 9 kg aircraft in a 30 kg system carried in two rucksacks, with a 1 kg fragmenting warhead, 30 minutes of endurance and GPS-guided accuracy of 2 metres, with more than 75 per cent indigenous content.

By early December 2024 the full 480 had been delivered, per The Week and Organiser. The Week added that Solar Industries was developing Nagastra-2 and Nagastra-3 with larger warheads.

The company also built infrastructure for the work. IANS reported on 30 March 2025 that the Prime Minister inaugurated SDAL’s Loitering Munition Test Range at Nagpur, writing on X that it “will significantly boost self-reliance in the defence sector.”

The Defence Minister’s January 2026 remarks

On 18 January 2026 the Press Information Bureau published an account of the Defence Minister’s visit to SDAL in Nagpur, where he opened a fully automated plant making 30 mm ammunition used by the Army and Navy. According to the release, he said the Solar Group’s Nagastra drones had been used in Operation Sindoor and praised the development of more advanced versions. The same release says the government is working to bring the private sector’s share of defence manufacturing to 50 per cent or more.

That fits a longer trend traced in India’s defence industry: from importer to maker, and the sales side of the same shift is in India’s defence exports.

The contract value

GKToday puts the order at about ₹158 crore. Machinist, reporting SDAL’s two June 2025 orders, gives a sum of ₹1.58 billion, which is also ₹158 crore, but attaches it to a separate Ministry of Defence order and gives no value for the Army order. No other opened source states a price for the 450 Nagastra-1R units, and the ministry’s release gives none. The ₹158 crore figure for the Army order is therefore one outlet’s number, and the primary source for it would be a Solar Industries filing or a ministry statement.

What remains to be published

SDAL has not published the range, endurance or warhead weight of the Nagastra-1R, and the trial results in the opened sources are the company’s account. As of 29 October 2026 none of them includes a statement from the Army on the delivery.