The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), in its meeting on Thursday, approved procurement proposals worth around ₹38,900 crore for various platforms and equipment required by the Armed Forces.
Focussed on indigenous design and development, these approvals include acquisitions worth ₹31,130 crore from Indian entities. All the equipment will be manufactured in India, involving the domestic defence industry, with participation from several MSMEs as prime vendors, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting and approved the proposals.
The indigenous content in some of these projects is up to 80 per cent of the project cost.
“A large number of these projects have been made possible due to transfer of technology by the DRDO to the indigenous industry. These include Pinaka ammunitions, BMP armament upgrades and software defined radios for the Army, long range land attack cruise missile (LRLACM) systems and Astra missiles for the Navy and the Air Force. The cost of these design and development proposals is in the range of ₹20,400 crore,” said the statement.
Fire power enhancement
The acquisition of new/additional missile systems will add to the fire power of the three armed services. While the acquisition of Pinaka missile systems will enable raising additional regiments over and above the ones already inducted, the addition of LRLACM systems with a firing range of 1,000 km to the existing arsenal will bolster the attack capabilities of the Navy and the Air Force, it further said.
Similarly, the induction of Astra missiles with beyond-visual-range capability will serve as a force multiplier and immensely add to the strike capability of the Navy and Air Force, the statement added.
Further, addressing the long felt need of the Air Force to increase its fighter squadrons, the DAC has approved a proposal to procure 21 MIG-29 along with upgradation of the existing 59 Mig-29 aircraft. It has also cleared the procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft.
“While the MIG-29 procurement and upgradation from Russia is estimated to cost ₹7,418 crore, the Su-30 MKI will be procured from HAL at an estimated cost of ₹10,730 crore,” the statement said.