Pune BEL eyes orders of critical fuzes from Navy and IAF, bags booking from Europe

In December 2023, the BEL Pune signed a Long-Term Make-in-India (LT-MII) contract worth Rs 4,522 crore for the supply of 50 lakh electronic fuzes to the Indian Army over the next 10 years. To meet the growing demand for Electronic Fuzes, BEL Pune has established an additional assembly line, which is now ready to commence operations.

Electronic fuzes are used with artillery shells for safety during handling, storage, transportation and to detonate the warhead as and when desired. Presently, BEL manufactures and supplies three types of electronic fuzes namely point detonating, time and proximity for three types of artillery guns — 105mm, 130mm and 155mm, in technical collaboration with Reshef Technologies, Israel.

Additionally, BEL’s Naval and Aerial fuzes are at an advanced stage of development and will be offered soon for user evaluation, officials have said. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the event, BEL Pune General Manager GSN Murthy said, “Naval fuze has undergone three rounds of trials and yet to undergo observation trials. For the aerial fuzes the development is at an advanced stage.”

Murthy further said, “We have received an overwhelming response during AeroIndia 2025. The contract that we have signed with the Army has given us a lot of visibility in the global arena. There were a lot of inquiries from European countries considering the geopolitical situation prevailing there. But earlier we were not able to book orders because we did not have the sufficient capacity. With the second assembly line coming and third one being on the anvil, we have started booking the orders. We now have an initial order of 50 thousand fuzes from a European country — and this is the first time we have got an order from an overseas customer.”