The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in its meeting on Wednesday accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for Capital Acquisitions proposals for modernisation and operational needs of the Indian Armed Forces amounting to around ₹13,165 crore.

Domestic sources

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh. Of the total amount approved, procurement worth ₹11,486 crore (87 per cent) is from the domestic sources, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement, adding that key approvals include helicopters, guided munition and rocket ammunition.

Looking into the needs of the Indian Army for an advanced light helicopters (ALH) squadron to improve its integral lift capability ensuring its operational preparedness, the DAC accorded approval of procurement of 25 ALH Mark III helicopters from M/s HAL under Buy Indian-IDDM at a cost of around ₹3,850 crore, in keeping with the continued thrust towards ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make in India’, it said.

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Giving boost to indigenous design and development of ammunitions, DAC accorded approval for procurement of terminally guided munition (TGM) and HEPF/ RHE rocket ammunition under Buy (Indian-IDDM) category at a cost of around ₹4,962 crore from domestic sources. Other proposals worth ₹4,353 crore were also accorded AoN by the DAC, the MoD said.

In addition, the DAC also approved a few amendments to the DAP 2020 as a part of business process re-engineering to ensure further ease of doing business for the industry as well as measures to enhance procurement efficiency and reducing timelines, it added.