Indian defence ministry gives preliminary approval for procurement projects worth $9.8 billion

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday accorded preliminary approval, the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN), for capital acquisition proposals of the armed forces amounting to $9.8 billion.

“This will provide a substantial boost to the Indian Defence Industry and reduce foreign spending significantly,” a Defence Ministry statement said, according to The Hindu.

“For the Army, the DAC accorded fresh AoNs for procurement of rough terrain fork lift trucks, bridge laying tanks, wheeled armoured fighting vehicles with anti-tank guided missiles and weapon locating radars through domestic sources with emphasis on indigenous design and development,” it stated.

For the Navy, AoN was accorded for procurement of Next Generation Corvettes (NGC) at an estimated cost of approximately $4.64 billion. “These NGCs will be versatile platforms for variety of roles viz. surveillance missions, escort operations, deterrence, surface action group operations, search & attack and coastal defence, the ministry said.

These NGCs would be constructed based on new in-house design of the Navy using the latest technology of ship building and would contribute to further the Government’s initiative of SAGAR (Security and Growth for all in the Region), it noted.

The DAC also accorded AoNs for manufacture of Dornier aircraft and Su-30 MKI aero-engines by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited with focus on enhancing indigenization, particularly in indigenizing aero-engine material.

Further, a "Digital Coast Guard" project under Buy (Indian) Category has also been approved by the DAC. Under this project, a pan India secure network for digitizing of various surface and aviation operations, logistics, finance and human resources processes in Coast Guard will be established, the statement added.