Aatmanirbhar Bharat: DAC approves nine capital acquisition proposals for armed forces worth Rs 45,000 Cr

With an aim to enhance the protection, mobility, attack capability and increased survivability of mechanised forces, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has accorded ‘Acceptance of Necessity’ (AoN) for nine capital acquisition proposals of approximately Rs 45,000 crore. In a meeting that was held under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Friday, the DAC accorded the AoN for procurement of Light Armoured Multipurpose Vehicles (LAMV) and Integrated Surveillance and Targeting System (ISAT-S). “All these procurements will be made from Indian vendors under the buy ‘Indian-Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured’ (IDMM) which will give a substantial boost to the Indian defence industry towards achieving the goal of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. The DAC cleared AoN for procurement of High Mobility Vehicle (HMV), gun-towing vehicles for swift mobilisation and deployment of artillery guns and radars. It approved the procurement of next-generation survey vessels for the Indian Navy which will greatly enhance its capabilities in performing hydrographic operations. The DAC also accorded AoN for proposals of the Indian Air Force which included avionic upgradation of Dornier Aircraft to improve the accuracy and reliability of 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. The AoN for procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI Aircraft with associated equipment from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was also accorded, it said. During the meeting, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said “It is time to upgrade the ambitions towards indigenisation. Rather than a threshold of 50 per cent indigenous content for IDDM projects, we should aim for a minimum of 60-65 per cent indigenous content. Singh directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs, Defence Secretary and DG (Acquisition) to work towards increasing the minimum indigenous content threshold in consultation with the Indian industry.