Govt approves 9, Rs 45k-cr acquisition proposals for armed forces

The government yesterday approved nine defence acquisition proposals totaling Rs 45,000 crore. Among the proposals cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, was the one for the procurement of 12 Su-30MKIs for the Indian Air Force, which would be manufactured in India by public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

All these procurements will be made from Indian vendors under Buy Indian-Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDMM) category which will give substantial boost to the Indian defence Industry towards achieving the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, an official release said.

To enhance protection, mobility, attack capability, and increased survivability of mechanized forces, the DAC accorded the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for procurement of Light Armoured Multipurpose Vehicles (LAMV) and Integrated Surveillance and Targeting System (ISAT-S). The DAC cleared AoN for procurement of High Mobility Vehicle (HMV) Gun Towing Vehicles for swift mobilization and deployment of artillery guns and radars.

The DAC also approved procurement of Next Generation Survey Vessels for the Indian Navy which will greatly enhance its capabilities in performing hydrographic operations, the release said.

The DAC also accorded AoN for proposals of the Indian Air Force which included avionic upgrade of Dornier aircraft to improve the accuracy and reliability for operations. The procurement of Dhruvastra short-range air-to-surface missile as a potent indigenous precision-guided weapon for indigenously-built ALH Mk-IV Helicopters has been cleared by the DAC.

During the meeting, Singh said that it is time to upgrade the ambitions towards indigenization. “Rather than a threshold of 50 per cent indigenous content for IDDM projects, we should aim for a minimum 60-65 per cent indigenous content,” he said.

He directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs, the Defence Secretary, and Director General (Acquisition) to work towards increasing the minimum indigenous content threshold in consultation with the Indian industry.