When we think about national security and defence systems, the first image that strikes our minds is the sight of fighter jets in the sky, missiles intersecting the border lines and drones safeguarding strategic camps and positions. But the point which usually does not come to our mind is: what is the basic requirement for making such powerful and strategic machineries? The response lies just beneath our feet, i.e., the hidden metals and minerals dispersed in the earth’s crust. In short, the strength of any nation in the defence sector begins with the occurrences of these strategic and critical minerals in their territory, without which the military defence equipment and machinery like fighter jets, missiles and drones cannot be built and operated. In this way, it would not be wrong to say that for making our defence sector self-reliant, we first need to be self-reliant in our mining and minerals sector.
Take an example of modern and advanced fighter jets like the Tejas Mk1A (India) or the F-35 (America), the strength of which lies in the earth-originated raw materials used inside them. Titanium is used in their bodies to make them robust and light. Critical metals like nickel and cobalt are required for their engines to tolerate severe heat conditions. Rare earth elements like neodymium, samarium and dysprosium play a crucial role in making of powerful magnets for radars and advanced sensors.
Carrying the vision of becoming Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), India is working hard to develop its own stealth fighter aircraft — the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), in association with a French company, Safran, is working to build a special engine for it. But, in order to make this engine, India needs critical and strategic metals like rhenium, tantalum and cobalt, the reserves of which are deficient in the country and, as such, most of them are required to be imported from other countries. Keeping in light the present geopolitical conditions around the globe, India is highly required to develop its own resources and reduce the import dependency; otherwise, projects like AMCA may get deferred or become more costly.
The same is applied in the case of drones, which have rapidly gained strong attention in today’s defence and military sectors. National-oriented significant drone systems like the Rustom-II, the upcoming CATS Warrior and the Heron operate on Li-ion batteries and also require other critical minerals like graphite, gallium and germanium in their various components like semiconductor chips and batteries. These materials allow drones to deliver high performance while meeting their actual requirements.
In this era of geopolitics and the concerned warfare, drones played a very crucial role in safeguarding any country’s defence system. Whether in the Russia–Ukraine conflict, or the recent Indo-Pak and Iran–Israel conflicts, drones just set an excellent example for the globe that a nation not only requires big weapons and missiles but also requires small-in-size modern technologies like drones to take over. And, for the drones, again, we require the critical minerals. Furthermore, in order to handle their fundamental parameters of temperature, pressure and velocity, Indian missiles like Agni, Prithvi and BrahMos require tungsten, niobium, tantalum and beryllium.
Recalling India’s historic Pokhran nuclear tests of 1974 and 1998, the critical and strategic minerals like uranium, lithium, zirconium and beryllium played a vital role in their successful execution and without which, the said tests would not have been possible.
Uranium, the essential fuel material for nuclear fission, used in the tests, was sourced from mines based in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. Zirconium, a prerequisite metal for reactor components, was refined at the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) using beach sand minerals sourced from Tamil Nadu and Odisha. The 1998 thermonuclear test used lithium-6, a key fusion fuel, processed under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). Beryllium, used as a neutron reflector, was sourced from Rajasthan and Karnataka. These critical and strategic minerals, with the support of strong geological understanding and the scientific inputs of prestigious defence-oriented institutions like BARC, DAE and DRDO, made India’s nuclear victories possible.
A recent example that showcased the background importance of metals and minerals in the defence is the “Operation Sindoor,” a major and large-scale air defence exercise executed by the Indian Air Force in May 2025. According to a PIB press release, air defence missile systems like Pechora and OSA-AK and low-level air defence (LLAD) guns were used in this operation by the Indian Air Force. What is worth noting here is that these air defence systems are also built using important critical metals and minerals like titanium, tungsten, aluminium and steel alloys, which are used in their body structure, barrels and warheads.
Furthermore, India’s homegrown Akash missile system, one of the top performers in Operation Sindoor, uses composite materials, copper wiring, boron-based propellants and tungsten-based parts to track and eliminate enemy targets. Delivering excellent results, it showed how India is seriously and positively following its pledge of becoming self-reliant India, particularly in the context of defence. But, again, the matter of concern lies in the fact that India has limited reserves of essential critical metals and minerals, which are required to make such high-performing, smart systems and equipment; due to which the nation has to import them from outside in large quantities.
India’s import dependency on other countries for critical minerals like rare earths, gallium and graphite is one of the biggest challenges for the defence sector. These minerals are critical as they are highly used in the making of batteries, electronic semiconductor chips, strategic weapons, radars and missile systems. Export restrictions of gallium and germanium imposed by China in mid-2023 is a perfect example showing how import dependency and supply chain disruption may impact various crucial industries, businesses and the economy of any importing nation. India does have mineral resources of such critical minerals in its territory, like graphite in Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha, rare earths in beach sands and lithium in Jammu and Kashmir. The need of the hour is to develop the resources, expedite the mining activities, acquire the mining assets internationally and grow in-house processing capabilities in order to become self-sustainable.
India has set up Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL) in this regard, which is working meticulously to secure its constant access to critical minerals by exploring international collaborations with resource-rich countries such as Argentina, Australia and parts of Africa. Simultaneously, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) labs like Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), Hyderabad, are working on making Indian substitutes for defence materials, which are being imported regularly. Furthermore, India is actively engaged in identifying the new prospects of critical minerals, auctioning the identified critical mineral blocks for exploration and mining, incentivising the private players, growing the mineral processing capabilities, investing in research and development and exploring the possibilities of international collaborations through KABIL.
As a concluding note, here, it is pertinent to mention that defence and security are not just about having control over jets, missiles or drones; it is about keeping hold on the key strategic materials required to build them. As India has the potential to come out as a powerful defence manufacturing hub sometime in the future, it is required to keep in mind that the real strength not only lies in the sky, but also in the metals and minerals buried beneath its feet. Taking all this into account, it is reasonable to say that if we want self-reliant defence, then it really begins with self-reliant minerals.
[Photo by DRDO, EdictGov-India, via Wikimedia Commons]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Nipam Joshi is a geologist and currently serves as Assistant Mineral Economist (Intelligence) at the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), Ministry of Mines, Government of India.
