Ordnance Factory Board | Indian Army | Indian Air Force | Indian Aviation Core | Indian Defence Forces
Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) consisting of the Indian Ordnance Factories is a Government agency under the control of the department of defence production (DDP) Ministry of Defence (MoD), Government of India. It is engaged in research, development, production, testing, marketing and logistics of a product range in the areas of air, land and sea systems. OFB comprises forty-one ordnance factories, nine training institutes, three regional marketing centres and four regional controllers of safety, which are spread all across the country. Every year, 18 March is celebrated as the Ordnance Factory Day in India.
OFB is the world's largest government-operated production organisation, and the oldest organisation in India. It has a total workforce of about 80,000. It is often called the "Fourth Arm of Defence", and the "Force Behind the Armed Forces" of India. OFB is the 35th largest defence equipment manufacturer in the world, 2nd largest in Asia, and the largest in India. Its total sales were at $2 billion (₹13687.22 crores) in the year 2017–'18.
Origins
Ordnance Factory Board predates all the other organisations like the Indian Army and the Indian Railways by over a century. The first Indian ordnance factory can trace its origins back to the year 1712 when the Dutch Ostend Company established a Gun Powder Factory in Ichhapur. In 1787, another gunpowder factory was established at Ichapore; it began production in 1791, and the site was later used as a rifle factory, beginning in 1904. In 1801, Gun Carriage Agency (now known as Gun & Shell Factory, Cossipore) was established at Cossipore, Calcutta, and production began on 18 March 1802. This is the oldest ordnance factory in India still in existence.
Contributions
The Indian Ordnance Factories have not only supported India through the wars but played an important role in building India with the advancement of technology and have ushered the Industrial Revolution in India starting with the first modern steel plant of India much before Tata Steel, first modern electric textile mill of India, first chemical industries such as smokeless propellant plants of India, established the first engineering colleges of India as its training schools, played a key role in the founding of research and industrial organisations like ISRO, DRDO, BDL, BEL, BEML and SAIL.
The Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS) is a civil service of the Government of India. IOFS officers are Gazetted (Group A) defence-civilian officers under the Ministry of Defence.
IOFS is a multi-disciplinary composite cadre consisting of technical – engineers (civil, electrical, mechanical, electronics), technologists (aerospace, automotive, marine, industrial/product design, computer, nuclear, optical, chemical, metallurgical, textile, leather) and non-technical/administrative (science, law, commerce, management and arts graduates). Technical posts comprise about 87% of the total cadre. The doctors (surgeons and physicians) serving in OFB belong to a separate service known as the Indian Ordnance Factories Health Service (IOFHS). IOFHS officers are responsible for the maintenance of the health of the employees, and the hospitals of OFB. They report directly to the IOFS officers. IOFS and IOFHS are the only two civil services under the Department of Defence Production.
The type of ordnance material produced is very diverse, including various small arms to missiles, rockets, bombs, grenades, military vehicles, armoured vehicles, chemicals, optical devices, parachutes, mortars, artillery pieces plus all associated ammunition, propellants, explosives and fuses.
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