DAC approves weapons, systems worth ₹1.45L crore
India's defence council approved military hardware procurement worth ₹1.45 lakh crore, focusing on indigenous suppliers for modernising forces.
The Union government’s defence acquisition council (DAC) on Tuesday gave its approval for the procurement of military hardware worth ₹1.45 lakh crore, 99% of which it said will be spent on procurement from indigenous suppliers, including those for future-ready combat vehicles (FRCVs), air defence fire control radars, aircraft, and fast attack and offshore patrol vessels.
Among the approvals is the key Indian Army plan to induct 1,770 FRCVs — the platform will be a futuristic battle tank — to modernise the armoured corps at a cost of around ₹45,000 crore. “For modernisation of the tank fleet, the proposal for procurement of FRCVs has been cleared. It will be a futuristic main battle tank with superior mobility, all terrain ability, multilayered protection, precision, lethal firepower and real-time situational awareness,” the defence ministry said in a statement, after the meeting that was chaired by minister Rajnath Singh.
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The construction of seven more Project-17B stealth frigates at a cost of ₹75,000 crore was also cleared by DAC to sharpen the navy’s capabilities, officials aware of the matter said, citing the overall value of the projects cleared, although the ministry’s statement made no mention of it.
Also, the council paved the way for the acquisition of 26 Rafale-M fighters for aircraft carrier INS Vikrant by clearing a deviation. This too wasn’t mentioned in the official statement. This deviation related to dropping the integration of the locally made Uttam active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, which is not fully ready, the officials said, asking not to be named. The deal for the twin-engine, deck-based fighters, built for sustained combat operations at sea, is estimated to be worth around ₹50,000 crore.
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DAC is the top decision-making body for military procurement and gives what is known as acceptance of necessity (AoN) — the first step towards buying military equipment. In all, the committee cleared 10 capital acquisition proposals worth ₹1,44,716 crore on Tuesday.
The statement by the ministry said indigenous sources will account for 99% of the total value of the projects cleared by DAC under the Buy (Indian) and Buy (Indian-IDDM) categories.
The Indian-IDDM category is the most important category of acquisition for indigenisation under the defence procurement policy. IDDM stands for indigenously designed, developed and manufactured.
The Buy (Indian) category refers to the purchase of military hardware from an Indian vendor meeting one of the two conditions --- products that have been indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with a minimum of 50% indigenous content (IC) on cost basis of the total contract value; or products, which may not have been designed and developed indigenously, having 60% IC on cost basis of the total contract value.
DAC approved the purchase of air defence fire control radars to detect, track and engage aerial targets, the ministry said.
Equipment with cross-country mobility for carrying out repair of armoured and mechanised infantry platforms was also cleared. Called ‘forward repair team (tracked)’, this equipment will be produced by Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited, one of the seven new defence companies carved out of the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) three years ago in a major reform in the country’s defence manufacturing sector.
Three proposals were cleared to boost the capabilities of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
“The procurement of Dornier-228 aircraft, next-generation fast patrol vessels having high operational features in rough weather conditions, and next-generation offshore patrol vessels with advanced technology and enhanced long-range operations will enhance the capability of ICG to carry out surveillance, patrolling of maritime zone, search and rescue, and disaster relief operations,” the statement added.
According to an army note, the FRCV, with capability to act as a multiple weapons platform along with infusion of niche technology, will cater for the future capability requirements and enhance the overall operational effectiveness index of the Indian Army.
The army currently operates T-90, T-72 and Arjun tanks. The FRCVs will essentially replace the older T-72s.
It will offer multiple options for rapid operational employment enabling the army to execute operations across the entire continuum of conflict against diverse threat and equipment profile of the adversaries, the note said. “The FRCV would be in-service for the next 35 to 45 years and, therefore, should be designed to deliver the highest lethality, survivability and agility on the battlefield combined with a fully digitised data backbone architecture to enable next-generation operational capabilities and automation.”
The FRCVs are expected to be inducted in three phases.
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Self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector is one of the government’s top priorities. India has taken a raft of measures to boost self-reliance, with phased bans on the import of hundreds of weapons and systems, and thousands of subsystems and components topping the list.
The other steps include creating a separate budget for buying locally made military hardware, increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) from 49% to 74% and improving the ease of doing business in the sector.
In July, India set aside almost ₹6.22 lakh crore for defence spending in the Union budget for 2024-25, with the chunk of the modernisation outlay allocated for buying weapons, systems and equipment from domestic suppliers to achieve the self-reliance goal.
This year’s allocation ( ₹6,21,940.85 crore) includes a revenue expenditure of ₹2.82 lakh crore, a capital expenditure of ₹1.72 lakh crore and a pension outlay of ₹1.41 lakh crore.
The capital outlay includes ₹1.05 lakh crore earmarked for domestic procurement.