Bharat's Strategic Engine

 STRATEGIC MONTHLY REVIEW

September 2026

The Month in One Sentence

Bharat spent the fortnight working at two tables at once, building the industrial base at home while sitting across from every major power abroad.

If last month was about individual platforms entering service, this period was about the architecture around them. New indigenisation lists, a semiconductor policy overhaul, a lakh crore procurement push, and a run of summits and state visits touched Russia, China, Central Asia and Europe within three weeks of each other. No single event defined the period. Together, they show a nation making self reliance and diplomacy move on the same track.

Maritime Power: Three More Additions to the Fleet

On 21 August, the Navy took delivery of INS Mangrol, the third of eight Mahe class anti submarine shallow water craft being built at Cochin Shipyard, with over 80 percent indigenous content, vessels designed for the close in, littoral hunting that a blue water fleet still needs.

Six days later, on 27 August, L&T delivered INS Samarthak at Kattupalli, Chennai, the first of the Navy's indigenous Multi Purpose Vessels, now headed into trials before formal induction.

Then, on 31 August, the Navy commissioned INS Nipun at the Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, the second and final Nistar class Diving Support Vessel, indigenously built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited at Visakhapatnam with close to 75 percent indigenous content. Nipun will serve as mother ship for the Navy's Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel, a capability that matters less for headlines and more for what happens on the worst day at sea, a submarine in distress.

Individually, none of these ships is as dramatic as a stealth frigate. Together, they mark the Navy's eighth indigenous induction of 2026. The fleet is being built out in depth, not only in prestige platforms.

Indigenisation on Paper Becomes Indigenisation in Practice

On 18 August, the Department of Defence Production notified the sixth Positive Indigenisation List, 405 items worth an estimated Rs 3,070 crore in business potential that can no longer be imported and must be sourced domestically. Sixteen of the items belong to the Coast Guard, and 389 are used across defence public sector undertakings. The list touches aircraft engines, armoured vehicles, warships and missile systems, including components for the Su 30MKI, T 72, T 90 and MRSAM.

Then, on 7 September, the Defence Acquisition Council cleared capital acquisition proposals worth roughly Rs 1.10 lakh crore, covering CBRN reconnaissance vehicles, high mobility vehicles, mine layers and helicopters for the Army, radars and marine gas turbines for the Navy, and jammers and secure access systems for the Air Force. The Ministry says nearly 98 percent of the value is expected to be sourced from Bharatiya industry.

It is worth being precise about what this clearance means. An Acceptance of Necessity is not a signed contract. Tenders, trials and negotiations still lie ahead, and some of these programmes will take years to mature. But the direction of travel is unmistakable, procurement lists that once defaulted to import now default to domestic sourcing as the first option.

Semicon 2.0: Widening the Chip Ambition

On 31 August, the government notified Semicon 2.0, a Rs 1.27 lakh crore programme and the successor to Bharat's original semiconductor mission, covering six areas: chip design, fabrication equipment and materials, new fabs, assembly and testing facilities, research, and talent. Three of the twelve approved facilities under the earlier scheme are already shipping commercial chips. Semicon 2.0 is aimed squarely at the gap that production has now exposed, over 90 percent of fabrication equipment and 85 to 90 percent of the specialty chemicals Bharatiya fabs consume are still imported.

This is not a defence announcement, and that is exactly the point, again. A missile or a fighter jet is only as secure as the chip inside it, and a nation that can design and assemble but not manufacture the machines and materials behind semiconductors remains exposed at the foundation. Semicon India 2026, the industry's annual showcase, follows on 17 to 19 September, just after this review period closes, and is expected to be the venue where the next wave of fabrication proposals is unveiled.

The Engine Question, Again

Kaveri 2.0 continued to gather momentum through the period, with the Gas Turbine Research Establishment reporting progress on a redesigned 90 kN class core and advanced single crystal turbine blades, aimed first at powering unmanned platforms and eventually at a Tejas mid life upgrade.

Separately, and on a larger scale, a proposal for an entirely new 110 to 130 kN engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, built through international collaboration rather than adapted from Kaveri, was reviewed by the Cabinet Committee on Security in August. The two tracks are not in competition so much as running in parallel, one indigenous and incremental, the other collaborative and aimed at getting a fifth generation engine into service on a workable timeline.

The lesson from last month's review still holds. A fighter engine remains the hardest technology in the inventory, and Bharat's approach now is to hedge, building what can be built at home while not gambling AMCA's timeline on a programme with a difficult history.

Strategic Deterrent: A Notice, and a Reminder

Early in the period, Bharat issued a Notice to Air Missions covering a stretch of nearly 3,000 kilometres over the Indian Ocean for the first days of September, the kind of advisory that customarily precedes a long range missile trial from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island. The exercise followed an Agni 4 user trial on 6 August from Chandipur, itself a reminder that periodic validation of an already inducted system is as important to deterrence as the development of new ones.

Whatever the precise missile involved in the early September trial, the pattern matters more than any single launch. Bharat's strategic forces are exercising the full spread of the Agni family at a steady cadence, keeping the deterrent credible rather than dormant.

The Indo-Pacific: A Maritime Partner Gets More Concrete

On 20 August, Bharat and Japan signed a Memorandum of Arrangement on Maritime Security Cooperation, creating a framework between the Indian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force covering maritime domain awareness sharing, search and rescue, disaster relief, naval visits, exercises, and logistical support including port access. The two sides also agreed to explore cooperation on mine countermeasures, shipbuilding and design, and reciprocal ship repair arrangements.

This moves the Bharat-Japan relationship past broad strategic language and into the kind of operational plumbing, port access, repair arrangements, information sharing, that actually determines whether two navies can work together when it counts.

Eurasia: The Prime Minister at the SCO, and a Region in Flux

On 31 August to 1 September, Prime Minister Modi travelled to Bishkek for the 26th SCO Summit, marking the organisation's 25th anniversary. His address rested on three pillars, security, connectivity and opportunity, with a pointed call to dismantle the entire ecosystem of terrorism: financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens, with no room for double standards. The summit adopted the Bishkek Declaration, which backed stronger cooperation against terrorism and organised crime, including Bharat's push on narco terrorism. Pakistan took over the SCO chairmanship for 2026 to 27.

The SCO remains an imperfect vehicle for Bharat's security concerns, given the presence of both China and Pakistan in the room. But it is also one of the few multilateral platforms where Bharat can press its anti terrorism position directly to the entire Eurasian neighbourhood, and it did so again this year.

Russia: The Relationship Keeps Moving on Multiple Tracks

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Moscow on 23 to 24 August to co-chair the 27th Bharat Russia Inter Governmental Commission, meeting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Putin, to whom he carried a message from the Prime Minister. Discussions spanned trade, energy, fertilisers and nuclear cooperation, with Jaishankar flagging Bharat's concern over the widening trade imbalance and pressing for greater market access in Russia.

That economic conversation was followed, on 8 September, by a harder edged defence one. Bharat signed a contract worth over a billion dollars for around 300 Russian R 37M long range air to air missiles for the Su 30MKI fleet, with deliveries expected over the following 12 to 18 months. Taken together, the two moves show a relationship still operating on its own logic, economic friction on one track and continued weapons cooperation on another, even as Bharat's engagement with the West deepens elsewhere.

China: An Eight-Point Consensus, Not a Settlement

On 25 August, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held the 25th round of Special Representatives' talks on the boundary question in Beijing, with Doval also meeting Vice President Han Zheng. The talks produced an eight point consensus, including a commitment to continue working toward a political settlement of the boundary question and to maintain stability along the frontier.

This is incremental, and it is meant to be read that way. The consensus does not resolve the boundary dispute, nothing in a single round of talks does, but it extends a cautious stabilisation that has been building since the border trade resumption and other confidence building steps earlier in the year.

Europe: Belgium Returns, With More on the Table

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever arrived in New Delhi on 2 September for the first visit by a Belgian premier in two decades, accompanied by Defence and Foreign Trade Minister Theo Francken and a delegation of Belgian companies. Talks with Prime Minister Modi on 3 September produced a set of government to government and private sector defence agreements, including local assembly of Belgian rockets and cooperation on ammunition production and naval mine countermeasure systems, alongside a fast track mechanism aimed at doubling bilateral trade within five years and cooperation on critical minerals, semiconductors and clean energy.

This follows directly from the first Bharat Belgium Strategic Dialogue held in July, and it confirms the pattern this review has noted before. Bharat's European engagement is no longer confined to the traditional major powers. A mid-sized European state with a defence industrial base, rockets, ammunition, precision manufacturing, is now a partner Bharat is actively courting for co production, not just courtesy visits.

The Strategic Verdict

No single moment in this period will be remembered the way a stealth frigate's commissioning or a maiden missile test is remembered. That is, again, the point.

Three more ships entered service. A sixth Positive Indigenisation List locked in 405 more items for domestic sourcing. A Rs 1.10 lakh crore procurement clearance moved through the pipeline. Semicon 2.0 widened the chip ambition beyond fabrication to the machines and materials behind it, backed by a confirmed Rs 1.27 lakh crore outlay. Two parallel tracks kept the fighter engine question alive. A missile notice reminded the region that the deterrent is exercised, not shelved. Japan became a more operational maritime partner. The SCO gave Bharat another stage for its anti terrorism argument. Russia stayed close on both economics and weapons. China offered eight points of consensus, not a settlement. And Belgium became the second European capital this year to sign up for co-production rather than simple purchase.

Put plainly, the period was thin on singular breakthroughs and thick on the connective tissue, the lists, clearances, frameworks and consensus points that determine whether Bharat's military and industrial ambitions actually cohere into a system. That was last month's closing question, and this period answered it the only way such questions get answered, slowly, and on many fronts at once.

Seema Sanghosh English | September 2026