Can India build drones without imported propulsion components? A manufacturing expansion aims to strengthen domestic aerospace supply chains.
Vector Technics, a subsidiary of Zen Technologies, has expanded the production capacity of its Shamshabad manufacturing facility to 300,000 propulsion units annually. The company also announced that it now designs and manufactures the complete propulsion stack for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in-house, covering both electric and internal combustion propulsion systems.
The expansion comes as India’s defence sector places greater emphasis on indigenous content and supply chain resilience under the Indigenous Design, Development and Manufacturing (IDDM) framework. The company said many drone platforms continue to depend on imported propulsion components, creating challenges related to traceability, firmware control, and long-term supply security. By manufacturing critical propulsion technologies domestically, the facility aims to reduce reliance on foreign components while supporting defence, surveillance, agriculture, and logistics applications.
The integrated 26,000sqft facility manufactures brushless DC (BLDC) motors, electronic speed controllers, carbon-fibre reinforced propellers, power electronics, internal combustion engines, and starter-generators. According to the company, the propulsion systems use domestically developed firmware running on trusted silicon and non-Chinese raw materials.
The product portfolio includes BLDC motors for first-person view (FPV), tactical, heavy-lift, fixed-wing, and VTOL drones, alongside 60cc, 170cc, and 210cc boxer engines for hybrid VTOL and fixed-wing UAVs. The company also produces power distribution boards with current sensing and voltage regulation, DC-DC converters for onboard electronics, and starter-generators for long-endurance platforms. Each propulsion unit is validated using three NABL-accredited thrust benchmarks before shipment.
“A drone is only as indigenous as what drives it. For years, India built sophisticated platforms on borrowed motors, borrowed firmware and a supply chain that could be cut. We spent seven years changing that, one component at a time. The IP lives in Hyderabad, and every unit is validated before it ships,” says Prudhvi Raj Pakalapati, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vector Technics.
