Aerospace and defence

Stratum 4 · Networks and systems

Aerospace and defence

This industry designs, builds, certifies and maintains civil aircraft, military platforms, weapons, satellites and launch vehicles. The 100 largest arms makers sold a record US$ 679 billion of arms and military services in 2024, about half by US firms (SIPRI), and civil aerospace adds several hundred billion more (estimate), with Airbus alone earning €73.4 billion in 2025. Civil aircraft are an Airbus-Boeing duopoly with an industry backlog above 17,000 aircraft, limited by engine and parts supply.²

India. India was the world's fifth-largest military spender in 2025 at US$ 92.1 billion¹, and its three firms in the SIPRI Top 100 sold US$ 7.5 billion of arms in 2024²; domestic defence production hit a record ₹1.78 lakh crore in 2025-26, with the private sector's share rising to 24% and exports to a record ₹38,424 crore³. Indian airlines' large aircraft orders and offset rules are also drawing aerostructure and MRO work to India.

Where ₹100 of aerospace and defence output goes

Where ₹100 of aerospace and defence output goes Every rupee of sales is paid out to someone along the chain. This splits ₹100 of output by who finally receives it, so you can see how exposed the industry is to commodity, chemical and energy prices. Commodities ₹15.2 Chemicals ₹0.7 Energy ₹10.1…

Price links with supplier industries

Price links with supplier industries How the industries this one buys from shape its prices: the share of its costs they make up, and how their prices have moved together. Tap a row for the charts. Hover or tap ? for what each measure means. Supplier industry Cost share Raw-material mix…

Follow one offering through the chain

Follow one offering through the chain 4 Example story · 8 steps · India A Tejas Mk1A fighter built in Bengaluru Follow India's light fighter from a superalloy melt shop to an Air Force squadron. 1 / 8 · Specialty materials and energetics Superalloys poured by a few melters $11.75bn GE's 2026 deal…

Buys directly from

Buys directly from Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft Semiconductors Computers and electronics Depends on through its suppliers Electrical equipment Machinery and equipment Metal products Plastic and rubber products Textiles and leather Water and sanitation Sells directly into Public administration…

Value chain, from upstream to the customer

Value chain, from upstream to the customer Criticality to the chain: 5 · Chokepoint 4 · Critical 3 · Important 2 · Supporting 1 · Commodity service Stage 1 Specialty materials and energetics Specialty alloy, casting and forging suppliers 5 · Chokepoint Melt titanium and nickel superalloys and turn…

What the whole chain draws on

What the whole chain draws on Every commodity, chemical and energy tile named by the enterprises above; ×n shows how many of them depend on it. Open any tile for its full detail. Commodities (20) Ti Titanium ×7 Al Aluminium ×4 Ni Nickel ×3 St Steel ×3 Co Cobalt ×2 Re Rhenium ×2 W Tungsten ×2 Ga…

Chokepoints and risks

Chokepoints and risks Engine and casting supply is the bottleneck: the backlog tops 17,000 aircraft, nearly 12 years of production, and IATA does not expect supply to normalise before 2031-2034 5 , 6 . China dominates rare earths, gallium and germanium used in radars, magnets and optics, and its…

Sources

Sources Global military spending rise continues as European and Asian expenditures surge Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 2026 SIPRI Top 100 arms producers see combined revenues surge as states rush to modernize and expand arsenals SIPRI, 2025 Defence production soars to a…

Relationship cards

• Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft: Aircraft, warships and armoured vehicles sit in both industries, so the two share factories, suppliers and bottlenecks: aerospace and defence spends about ₹38.8 of each ₹100 of output with the vehicles industry, and engine and parts shortages have left a backlog above 17,000 aircraft. (researched)
• Aluminium: Aluminium alloys still make up much of an aircraft, about half of a Boeing 777's structure, but carbon composites are about half of the newer 787, so lighter lithium-bearing alloys and certified supply of high-strength grades decide aluminium's place in aerospace. (researched)
• Aviation propulsion: No aircraft, civil or military, can be delivered without its engines, and engine output is now the tightest constraint on the industry; India still flies every fighter on a foreign engine and is trying to change that through the Safran co-development for AMCA. (researched)
• Cobalt: Cobalt is a small but essential ingredient of jet engine superalloys: aerospace used about 11.5 kt in 2025, a fraction of battery demand, yet about three quarters of mined cobalt comes from Congo, whose export quotas now set availability and price. (researched)
• Public administration, defence and security: Governments are the defence industry's customer, regulator and often owner: world military spending reached about USD 2.9 trillion in 2025, and in India about 75% of the defence capital acquisition budget is reserved for domestic industry, so budgets and procurement rules set the industry's order book. (researched)
• Titanium: Titanium is above all an aerospace metal: most titanium metal used in the US goes into aerospace, and it is about 15% of a Boeing 787's structure, yet sponge supply is concentrated in China, Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan, and the 2022 break with Russia showed how exposed airframers are. (researched)
• Nickel: Nickel-base superalloys make up much of a jet engine's hot section, over half of engine weight with other superalloys, but aerospace takes only a small slice of world nickel, so engine makers buy at prices set by stainless steel and Indonesian supply. (researched)
• Rhenium: Rhenium is the few-per-cent addition that lets single-crystal turbine blades survive the hottest part of a jet engine; superalloys take about 80% of supply, but because mined rhenium comes only as a by-product of roasting molybdenum concentrates, world output of about 81 tonnes in 2025 cannot rise quickly when engine demand does. (researched)
• Telecommunications: Telecommunications buys from Aerospace and defence; aerospace and defence buys from Telecommunications; telecommunications depends on aerospace and defence; aerospace and defence depends on telecommunications.
• Computers and electronics: Aerospace and defence buys from Computers and electronics; aerospace and defence depends on computers and electronics.
• Finance: banking, insurance, markets: Aerospace and defence buys from Finance: banking, insurance, markets; aerospace and defence depends on finance: banking, insurance, markets.
• Machinery and equipment: Aerospace and defence buys from Machinery and equipment; aerospace and defence depends on machinery and equipment.
• Metal products: Aerospace and defence buys from Metal products; aerospace and defence depends on metal products.
• Plastic and rubber products: Aerospace and defence buys from Plastic and rubber products; aerospace and defence depends on plastic and rubber products.
• Professional services: Aerospace and defence buys from Professional services; aerospace and defence depends on professional services.
• Semiconductors: Aerospace and defence buys from Semiconductors; aerospace and defence depends on semiconductors.
• Software and IT services: Aerospace and defence buys from Software and IT services; aerospace and defence depends on software and IT services.
• Textiles and leather: Aerospace and defence buys from Textiles and leather; aerospace and defence depends on textiles and leather.
• AC transmission: Aerospace and defence depends on AC transmission.
• Acrylonitrile: Aerospace and defence depends on acrylonitrile.
• Adhesives and sealants: Aerospace and defence depends on adhesives and sealants.
• Ammonium nitrate: Aerospace and defence depends on ammonium nitrate.
• Argon: Aerospace and defence depends on argon.
• Beryllium: Aerospace and defence depends on beryllium.
• Chromium: Aerospace and defence depends on chromium.
• Copper: Aerospace and defence depends on copper.
• Cotton: Aerospace and defence depends on cotton.
• Crude oil: Aerospace and defence depends on crude oil.
• Electric heating: Aerospace and defence depends on electric heating.
• Electronic specialty gases: Aerospace and defence depends on electronic specialty gases.
• Energy in buildings: Aerospace and defence depends on energy in buildings.
• Energy-intensive industry: Aerospace and defence depends on energy-intensive industry.
• Epoxy resins: Aerospace and defence depends on epoxy resins.
• Explosives and propellants: Aerospace and defence depends on explosives and propellants.
• Fluoropolymers (PTFE, PVDF): Aerospace and defence depends on fluoropolymers (PTFE, PVDF).
• Gallium: Aerospace and defence depends on gallium.
• Germanium: Aerospace and defence depends on germanium.
• Gold: Aerospace and defence depends on gold.
• Hafnium: Aerospace and defence depends on hafnium.
• Hydrogen: Aerospace and defence depends on hydrogen.
• Lubricant additives: Aerospace and defence depends on lubricant additives.
• Natural gas: Aerospace and defence depends on natural gas.
• Nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries: Aerospace and defence depends on nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries.
• Niobium: Aerospace and defence depends on niobium.
• Nitric acid: Aerospace and defence depends on nitric acid.
• Nitrogen gas: Aerospace and defence depends on nitrogen gas.
• Oxygen: Aerospace and defence depends on oxygen.
• Paints and coatings: Aerospace and defence depends on paints and coatings.
• Polyurethanes (MDI, TDI, polyols): Aerospace and defence depends on polyurethanes (MDI, TDI, polyols).
• Rare earths: Aerospace and defence depends on rare earths.
• Renewable diesel and SAF: Aerospace and defence depends on renewable diesel and SAF.
• Rockets and human power: Aerospace and defence depends on rockets and human power.
• Ship propulsion: Aerospace and defence depends on ship propulsion.
• Steel: Aerospace and defence depends on steel.
• Sulphuric acid: Aerospace and defence depends on sulphuric acid.
• Toluene: Aerospace and defence depends on toluene.
• Tungsten: Aerospace and defence depends on tungsten.
• Uranium: Aerospace and defence depends on uranium.
• Yttrium: Aerospace and defence depends on yttrium.
• Zinc: Aerospace and defence depends on zinc.