Thales Belgium and KSSL partner to manufacture 70 mm laser-guided rockets in India by 2027.

Thales Belgium and Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement in India on September 3, 2026, to establish indigenous manufacturing of FZ 70 mm rocket systems. The partnership expands local defence manufacturing capacity by transferring production know-how and component integration for FZ90 unguided and FZ275 semi-active laser-guided rockets to KSSL's Indian facilities, including an upcoming Energetics plant in Andhra Pradesh. This industrial initiative supports both domestic supply for HAL Rudra and Prachand helicopters and international export markets amid surging global demand for precision-guided munitions.

The agreement establishes Indian assembly of Belgian-designed 70 mm rocket systems, targeting the delivery of the first fully assembled Indian unit by early 2027. Covering unguided FZ90 and laser-guided FZ275 variants, the partnership utilizes KSSL's integration infrastructure and Thales' global supply chain to scale local production for rotary-wing and counter-drone applications.

Related topic: L3Harris successfully fires Belgium's FZ275 laser rocket from VAMPIRE counter-drone system in Poland

Thales Belgium and Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited have agreed to manufacture Belgian FZ 70 mm rocket systems in India to deliver the first locally assembled units by early 2027, serving domestic defense needs and global export markets. (Picture source: Thales)

On September 3, 2026, Thales Belgium and Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited (KSSL) agreed to establish Indian manufacturing of the FZ 70 mm/2.75-inch rocket family, covering the unguided FZ90 FFAR and semi-active laser-guided FZ275, with the first fully assembled Indian rocket targeted for early 2027. KSSL, Bharat Forge's wholly owned defense subsidiary, will provide manufacturing, integration and testing capacity, including its planned Energetics facility in Andhra Pradesh, while Thales will transfer production know-how and provide access to its Belgian-developed rockets, launchers and qualified component supply chain.

The agreement, which covers local production, distribution and associated equipment, follows BDL's February 2023 FZ275 localization agreement and Adani Defence & Aerospace's June 2024 FZ initiative, making KSSL the third Indian industrial partner associated with the Belgian 70 mm rocket. India already operates the rockets on HAL Rudra and Prachand helicopters, at a time when Belgian FZ275 output increased from 700 rounds in 2024 to 3,500 in 2025 and is targeted at 10,000 in 2026, a 14.3-fold increase in two years. Thales explicitly intends Indian capacity to support both domestic and international requirements. The FZ275 combines a precision guidance with a 1.8 m-long, 70 mm rocket weighing 12.7 kg and a 4.1 kg warhead, giving the warhead alone 32.3% of total launch mass.

Its FZ276 motor is 1.06 m long and weighs 6.3 kg; it uses double-base solid propellant with a star-shaped central perforation and generates 680 daN·s of total impulse. The guidance section combines a semi-active laser seeker and four folding steering canards, allowing the engagement of stationary or moving targets from 1.5 to 7 km, with an accuracy below 1 m CEP at 6 km. The first successful guided firing in November 2010 placed a round about 0.5 m from the aim point on a 3 x 3 m target at 4.6 km, while another configuration lists an 8 km maximum range from sea level. The FZ319 high-explosive configuration, for its part, uses an MK352 impact fuze and can penetrate about 6 mm of ST37-2 steel, placing light vehicles, radar and communications installations, parked aircraft, small boats and soft bunkers within the intended target set, without the weight and launcher requirements associated with larger guided missiles. 

India has also spent two decades building the aircraft-side infrastructure into which domestic production will feed. Forges de Zeebrugge (FZ) received the HAL integration contract in 2006 for the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), with the armed derivative becoming the Rudra, while the Light Combat Helicopter TD-3 conducted FZ 70 mm firings in March 2016 before the aircraft entered service as Prachand. The FZ275 subsequently entered Indian Army and Indian Air Force use on these HAL helicopters, so domestic production begins with qualified aircraft, launcher interfaces, ammunition-handling procedures and trained units already in place. A March 2025 Thales Belgium-HAL agreement for rockets and launchers produced a workload estimate of 30-50 helicopters per year over five years, equivalent to 150-250 helicopter-equipment sets if maintained.

This requirement is also recurring rather than limited to initial aircraft fit because rockets expended in training and operations have to be replaced. The FZ rocket family has accumulated almost seven decades of development since Forges de Zeebrugge obtained a U.S Navy license in 1958 to manufacture the complete 2.75-inch rocket. The company had moved to Herstal in 1947 and opened Fort Evegnée in 1956; subsequent Belgian engineering modified the Mk4 and Mk40 motors into the FZ67 and FZ68 before introducing the FZ90 in 1993-94. Warhead diversification produced the FZ122 carrying 2,200 flechettes and the FZ149 MULTIDART carrying 36 darts, for different effects against personnel and lightly armored vehicles. Guided development started in 2004, followed by the first FZ275 guided firing in 2010, Rooivalk firing in 2015, H145M testing in 2017, and Malaysian Hawk and F/A-18 campaigns in 2018.

Launcher development meanwhile produced the FZ225, FZ231, FZ233, seven-tube FZ220, and FZ606 digital smart launcher, together with weapon-management equipment. Consequently, a 70 mm production can encompass several industrial layers: propellant manufacture, motors, warheads, fuzes, seekers, control sections, launcher structures, electronics, final assembly, acceptance testing and energetic-component handling. Counter-UAS use changed the rocket production arithmetic because consumption can be measured in much larger quantities. The FZ275 counter-UAS configuration is equipped with the FZ123 fragmentation warhead containing roughly 6,500 to 7,000 steel pellets and nearly 1 kg of explosive, creating thousands of potentially damaging fragments against a Shahed-type one-way attack UAV.

Ukraine and Thales Belgium signed a manufacturing memorandum in 2024 involving technology transfer and production inside Ukraine, while a longer-term objective reaches as many as 100,000 rockets annually from 2028. Compared with 700 FZ275s in 2024, 100,000 represents 142.9 times that output; compared with the 10,000-round 2026 target, it remains a tenfold increase. The launcher base is expanding simultaneously: Rheinmetall's Mission Master was demonstrated in 2019 with two seven-tube FZ220 launchers, and a 70 mm installation was fired alongside a cannon from the Cockerill 3030 turret in 2020. A caliber historically centered on attack helicopters can consequently generate demand from helicopter strike, vehicle-mounted fire support, unmanned ground vehicles and counter-UAS batteries, with the last category potentially consuming rockets at a much higher rate.

Belgian production expansion shows the scale India would have to reach before becoming more than a domestic assembly source. Thales committed more than €20 million in 2023 and inaugurated a new Herstal line on July 1, 2024, to increase its laser-guided rocket capacity from 1,000 to 5,000 rounds annually by 2025, a 400% capacity increase. More than 50 additional employees were planned, alongside additional vertical integration and supply chain expansion. Production figures subsequently moved from 700 FZ275s in 2024 to 3,500 in 2025 and a 10,000-round target in 2026: +400% in the first year, followed by +186% in the second, for a cumulative growth of 1,329% relative to 2024. By June 2025, the Belgian line was manufacturing about 300 guided and unguided munitions per day, while the total annual rocket production was planned to increase from 40,000 to 60,000, a 50% increase.

Until KSSL capacity is disclosed, claims that India will become a major global FZ manufacturing center cannot be quantified. The more important industrial question is whether the three Indian FZ partnerships will combine or divide the production. BDL's February 2023 agreement envisaged Indian FZ275 manufacturing facilities and exports of Indian-produced components into Thales' supply chain; Adani Defence & Aerospace added another localization track in June 2024 associated with the FZ275 and FZ90; KSSL now adds manufacturing, integration, testing and an Andhra Pradesh Energetics facility. The September 2026 agreement therefore does not represent India's first attempt to manufacture the FZ275, and the status of the BDL and Adani production lines remains unclear.

A rational division could separate energetic components, motors, guidance sections, warheads, launchers, and final integration among different companies, but no such allocation has been announced. Assembling imported seekers, motors, and warheads creates a materially different industrial capability from manufacturing the FZ276 propellant and motor, FZ319 or FZ123 warheads, laser seeker, and control section domestically. Ukraine adds another prospective production location while Herstal and Fort Evegnée remain the Belgian core, so Thales could ultimately operate a distributed FZ supply network across Belgium, India and Ukraine.

The 70 mm project is one of 10 industrial arrangements signed during the September 2026 Belgian mission. A new Lachaussée and Tembo Classic Engineering project, valued at roughly €50 million, covers complete manufacturing lines for two ammunition calibers plus tooling for two others, with about 100 million cartridges of annual capacity and installation in 2028-29. Exail and Larsen & Toubro are working on autonomous mine-countermeasure equipment for an initial 12 vessels, with the potential Indian requirement reaching 59, almost five times the initial quantity.

FN Herstal and Kalyani are examining Indian production of small arms, integrated weapon systems and counter-UAS equipment, with an initial requirement or order cited at 10,000 M2 machine guns. John Cockerill and L&T's 60:40 venture is intended to manufacture 59 Cockerill 3105 turrets at Chakan near Pune, and the turret is already installed on Zorawar tank prototypes. OIP cooperation follows delivery of more than 130 sights for Arjun Mk I; ABC and Kirloskar are working on a 6 MW marine diesel engine; and Sol.One and DGVK cover the Saboteur armed quadplane plus Buzzkill and Hitchhiker interceptors.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.