New-age defence tech is rising, but is India ready with the talent?
A report by Quess Corp highlights that India must take war-footing measures to build a sizeable pool of defence ready talent, which is now in short supply.
India’s new-age defence technology sector, spanning sophisticated drones, autonomous robots, and quantum computer-enabled communication channels, is projected to grow from its current value of $7.6 billion to nearly a $19 billion market by 2030. However, this growth hinges on overcoming a major challenge: building a sizable talent pool.
Quess Corp, one of the leading staffing and workplace solutions providers, in its report: India’s defence tech evolution: skills shaping the next decade, highlighted that India’s real race isn’t just “growing the pie of defence talent” but tilting this pie towards hard-tech + IP retention. “If that happens, India leapfrogs from being a service base to a sovereign defence innovator by 2030,” it noted.
India is known globally for its vast pool of software engineers across cloud, digital and AI domains. But the requirement of the defence sector is slightly different and the need of the hour is rapid upskilling.
Today, one is talking about drones which are much more sophisticated, both in its operations and the underlying technologies. The level of accuracy, speed, and the damage it can do needs skills, which combine both software and hardware elements. The sector is also exploring newer domains such as underwater drones.
On the other hand, there is defence robotics with significant opportunities in areas such as humanoids and autonomous naval crafts. At the same time, secure communication is critical for the defence forces, and this can be secured only through quantum computing. Lastly, the next battlefront is emerging in space technologies.
According to the report, of India’s 800,000 AI professionals, less than 5% are defence-ready. It warns that unless there is a transformation on a war footing, India risks becoming a sub-contractor rather than being a leader in defence systems.
The report also noted that 89% of the defence tech startups have already integrated AI modules into their products or R&D efforts, with AI expected to underpin almost all defence applications by 2030.
Currently, most defence-related talent comes from public sector units, followed by startups and then the contract assembly firms. For example, in the hardware front, which requires skills in segments like radar, propulsion, quantum and certification engineers, the supply of talent pool remains limited.
The demand for defence-focused cybersecurity is growing 20% annually, according to the report, but India has less than 5,000 experts in this domain. The talent shortage is similarly acute in areas such as UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), radio frequency specialists, optical engineers, and several other critical specifications.
By 2030, new-age defence technology will no longer be a niche segment. It will be the engine of growth for India’s defence industry, with its share expected to rise from 28% in 2025 to nearly 50% by 2030 of the overall market. This transformation will make technology, not just platforms, the primary growth driver of national defence capability.
As of 2025, India’s defence tech talent pool stands at roughly 75,000 to 80,000 professionals. While Bengaluru and Hyderabad account for nearly half of this workforce, new growth corridors in Lucknow and Coimbatore, along with naval hubs in Chennai, Visakhapatnam, and Goa, are accelerating growth, setting the stage for a more distributed ecosystem by 2030.
Kapil Joshi, CEO, IT Staffing, Quess Corp, said, “India’s defence industry is at a generational inflection point. But our true competitive edge will come from talent. The next five years are decisive, for India to become a global systems leader, scaling defence-ready AI and frontier engineering talent by 5–6X is not just an industry need, it is a national imperative.”
Edited by Megha Reddy