From guns to missiles and drones to specialist vehicles, the army is looking at buying military hardware from the domestic defence industry through the emergency procurement route to boost its operational readiness, officials familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
The army can make such purchases by invoking its emergency financial powers to buy equipment worth ₹300 crore provided it can be inducted within a year to meet urgent requirements, said one of the officials cited above.
The equipment army is looking at acquiring includes guns, missiles, drones, counter-drone systems, loitering munition, communication and optical systems, specialist vehicles and engineering equipment.
“The process will be based on compressed timelines, wherein the procurement window will be open to Indian Industry for six months, and the industry would be expected to deliver equipment within one year of signing the contract. Procurement cases will be based on open tender enquiry,” the Indian Army said on Twitter.
It added that this was in keeping with its commitment to fight future wars with Indigenous solutions.
The government has taken several steps to promote self-reliance in the defence sector in recent years, including banning the import of major weapons, platforms, sub-systems and components, creating a separate budget for buying military hardware from the local industry and earmarking research and development budget for the private industry and start-ups.
{{/usCountry}}The government has taken several steps to promote self-reliance in the defence sector in recent years, including banning the import of major weapons, platforms, sub-systems and components, creating a separate budget for buying military hardware from the local industry and earmarking research and development budget for the private industry and start-ups.
{{/usCountry}}The latest push by the army for emergency procurement comes at a time when India and China have been locked in a lingering border standoff in the Ladakh sector since May 2020.
Despite four rounds of disengagement from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15), the two armies still have around 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.
Even after 16 rounds of military talks held so far, problems at Depsang in the Daulet Beg Oldi sector and Charding Nullah Junction (CNJ) in the Demchok sector are still on the negotiating table.