India working to cut arms-buying timeline

The review has been ordered following the defence ministry declaring 2025 as the ‘year of reforms’ in January.

A high-powered defence ministry committee, steering a comprehensive review of India’s arms-buying rules, is looking at shortening actual acquisition timelines from the current seven-eight years to under two years for speedy modernisation of the armed forces, people tracking the matter said on Wednesday.

India working to cut arms-buying timeline

The panel, headed by director general (acquisition), has identified three key areas that account for delays in the procurement of critical weapons and systems, including preparation of the request for proposal (RFP), field evaluation trials and contract negotiations, the people said, asking not to be named.

The review of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 was ordered by the defence ministry in June and is expected to be concluded by December, HT learns.

“The two-year timeline is prescribed in the DAP but most acquisitions tend to be prolonged, sometimes taking seven to eight years instead of two. The Rafale M deal was closed in less than two years, and that’s how all acquisition should progress. The review is to ensure that self-imposed deadlines are met,” said one of the persons cited above.

The panel includes senior officers from the ministry, representatives from the defence industry and academia. The review has been ordered following the defence ministry declaring 2025 as the ‘year of reforms’ in January.

A second person explained the approach towards shortening the timelines.

“Field evaluation trials consume a lot of time, often prolonging the procurement cycle. The panel is exploring if simulation-based trials can be carried out in the case of certain military equipment. Another way out is skipping the trials process if a weapon or system is already in service with a credible global army,” he said.

On March 20 (before the panel was formed), HT reported that the defence ministry was taking steps to drastically compress timelines for the procurement of defence equipment to ensure that the country’s ability to defend itself doesn’t fall victim to bureaucratic procedures.

The measures related to laying down strict timelines for RFP, field evaluation trials and contract negotiation committee to accelerate the acquisition process from the present 96 weeks (two years) to only 24 weeks (six months).

India’s military procurement involves multiple processes, starting with request for information from suppliers, formulation of services qualitative requirements (SQRs) and acceptance of necessity (AoN) by the defence ministry followed by solicitation of offers through RFP, evaluation of technical offers, field evaluation trials, staff evaluation, oversight by a technical committee, contract negotiations and approval of the competent financial authority before a contract is finally awarded.

“The panel will weed out redundant procedures that slow down the procurement cycle at different stages. If an order for a weapon or system is placed, say, 10 years after the case was initiated, it will be outdated by the time it comes,” said the first person.

The aim of the review is to meet the operational requirements and modernisation needs of the armed forces in a timely manner to ensure national security and achieve atmanirbharta (self-reliance) goals by promoting technology infusion through indigenously designed and developed systems.

“If a procurement is delayed, new technologies come in by the time we award a contract and the services qualitative requirements lose their meaning. Operational capabilities get blunted because of delays,” said military affairs expert Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd).

The review also seeks to boost the Make-in-India initiative by promoting defence manufacturing through facilitation of joint ventures and transfer of technology for the private sector, encouraging foreign original equipment manufacturers to invest in the country and establish India as a global defence manufacturing and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) hub. The panel was formed weeks after India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 and struck terror and military installations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) following the Pahalgam terror strike in which 26 people were shot dead.

It triggered a four-day military confrontation with Pakistan before the two sides reached an understanding on stopping all military action on May 10.

The panel had earlier sought suggestions from stakeholders on a raft of issues including policy/procedural changes to streamline the acquisition processes, ease of doing business, conduct of trials, post-contract management, fast-track procedures, adoption of new technologies including artificial intelligence, and language improvements to eliminate ambiguity and enhance procedural clarity in the DAP.

On May 30, defence secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said DAP 2020, the document that spells out the complex procurement process, is being revisited to reflect current realities. He said the government is taking steps to shorten the weapon procurement cycle and has already cut it by more than a year --- a move aimed at accelerating the modernisation of the armed forces.

“The defence ministry has already, in the year of reforms, slashed the timelines for some of the processes in the procurement cycle. This would save about 69 weeks overall in the process timeline,” he said at the time, adding that there is a need to shift away from the traditional nomination-based procurement focused mostly on the public sector to a more competitive pricing model where both the public and private sector can compete for orders.

This approach is already being implemented for shipbuilding and for the AMCA (advanced medium combat aircraft) project.

The defence ministry has declared 2025 as the year of reforms with the goal of transforming the military into a technologically advanced, combat-ready force capable of tackling new challenges. The nine areas identified by the defence ministry for focused intervention include simplifying weapons buying procedures, setting up of integrated theatre commands for the best use of the military’s resources to fight future wars, and new domains such as cyber and space.