Munitions India Limited

Munitions India Limited is what happened when the Indian government took the ammunition half of the Ordnance Factory Board and made it a company. Incorporated in 2021 as one of seven defence public sector undertakings carved out of the board, it began trading on 1 October that year with a corporate office in Pune and twelve manufacturing units inherited from an organisation whose oldest plant, Ammunition Factory Khadki, dates to 1869. The workforce is around 25,000. Production covers ammunition and explosives for the Army, Navy, Air Force and central armed police forces, and the vertical integration is unusual: initiatory compositions, propellants and high explosives are made in-house rather than bought in, at Cordite Factory Aruvankadu, High Explosives Factory Khadki, Ordnance Factory Itarsi and the newer propellant plant at Nalanda.

The catalogue splits four ways. Large calibre ammunition is the revenue centre and runs across 155 mm, 130 mm, 125 mm and 105 mm natures, including 155 mm high explosive M-107, extended range full bore rounds in boat tail and base bleed forms, illuminating and screening smoke shells, 125 mm high explosive and anti-tank rounds for tank guns, and the bi-modular charge system and semi-combustible cartridge cases that go with modern artillery. Medium calibre covers 84 mm rounds for the recoilless rifle in high explosive, smoke and illuminating variants, and the 30 mm family for the BMP-II in high explosive incendiary, armour piercing tracer and high explosive tracer. Small calibre spans 5.56x45 mm, 7.62x51 mm, 7.62x54 mmR, 9x19 mm, 12 bore and 14.5 mm, plus 20 mm rounds for anti-materiel rifles. A fourth group gathers everything else, and it is where the company gets interesting. That group holds the rockets for the Pinaka multi-barrel launcher in Mark I, Mark I Enhanced, Mark II and guided forms, the Shivalik multi-mode hand grenade that replaced the ageing 36M pattern, 1,000 pound aerial bombs in high explosive and thermobaric versions, high speed low drag bombs, 68 mm aircraft rockets, 81 mm and 51 mm mortar bombs, naval mines and fin-stabilised discarding sabot tank rounds.

The unit network reads as a map of Indian ordnance geography, taking in Ordnance Factory Khamaria for filled ammunition, Ordnance Factory Chanda, Ordnance Factory Varangaon for small arms rounds, Ordnance Factory Bhandara, Ordnance Factory Badmal, Ordnance Factory Dehuroad for pyrotechnics and night warfare stores, and the High Energy Projectile Factory that grew out of the heavy alloy penetrator project. Two things sit outside the ammunition list. MIL runs an export desk selling the same natures to foreign militaries, and a civil trade arm that supplies commercial and sporting ammunition and industrial explosives inside India. Research and development, quality assurance through a dedicated Controllerate of Safety, and training through the National Academy of Defence Production and the learning institute at Khamaria are all held in-house. Budget allocation has climbed steadily since corporatisation, reaching 745.45 crore rupees in the 2025 financial year, the largest of the seven new defence companies, aimed at new lines for 30 mm and 40 mm grenade ammunition and at rebuilding war reserves.