New Delhi, June 06:
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which met on Monday under the chairmanship of defence minister Rajnath Singh, accorded acceptance of necessity (AoN) for capital acquisition proposals of the armed forces worth ₹76,390 crore under ‘Buy (Indian)’, ‘Buy & Make (Indian)’ and ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’ categories – giving a major boost to ‘the Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ campaign.
These include procurement of rough terrain forklift trucks, bridge laying tanks, wheeled armoured fighting vehicles with anti-tank guided missiles and weapon locating radars through domestic sources with emphasis on indigenous design and development – for the Indian Army.
“For the Indian Navy, the DAC accorded AoN for procurement of next-generation corvettes (NGCs) at an estimated cost of approx ₹36,000 crore. These NGCs will be versatile platforms for a variety of roles viz. surveillance missions, escort operations, deterrence, surface action group (SAG) operations, search and attack and coastal defence,” a defence ministry statement said. It added that these NGCs would be constructed based on the new in-house design of the Indian Navy using the latest technology of shipbuilding and would contribute to further the government’s initiative of “SAGAR (security and growth for all in the region)”.
The DAC also accorded AoNs for the manufacture of Dornier aircraft and Su-30 MKI aero-engines by the Navratna CPSE M/s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited with a focus on enhancing indigenisation, particularly in indigenising aero-engine material.
“In pursuance of the Government’s vision for digital transformation in Defence, the ‘Digital Coast Guard’ project under ‘Buy (Indian) Category has been approved by the DAC. Under this project, a pan India secure network for digitising of various surface and aviation operations, logistics, finance and HR processes in Coast Guard will be established,” the statement added.
