The Central Government has cleared proposals worth Rs 70,500 crore to procure a number of defense equipment for armed forces, the Defence Ministry stated on March 16.
A meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) under the chairmanship of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for capital acquisition to buy indigenously designed, developed, and manufactured weapons. The council also gave an AoN for the procurement of 307 advanced towed artillery gun systems (ATAGS) for the Army.
All the planned procurements are under the Buy (Indian-IDDM) category in a boost to the government’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat (self-reliance) programme.
The proposals were for the acquisition of indigenously designed, developed and manufactured military hardware as part of a mega procurement plan that is expected to significantly boost domestic defense manufacturing. These initiatives come amidst the backdrop of the ongoing standoff along the Line of Actual Control vis a vis China.
It also granted the procurement of advance light helicopters (ALH) MK-III from Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) for the Indian Coast Guard.
It has been declared that out of the total proposals, Indian Navy proposals constitute more than Rs 56,000 crore, which largely includes indigenous BrahMos missiles, Shakti Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, Utility Helicopters-Maritime etc.
The Government said that while this additional procurement of BrahMos missile system will enhance the maritime strike capabilities and anti-surface warfare operation, the addition of utility helicopters will amplify the operational preparedness of the Indian Navy in the domain of search and rescue operations, and casualty evacuation.
Similarly, Shakti EW systems will equip and modernise the frontline naval ships to counter any naval operations by the adversaries.
Similarly the ministry said, the council accorded the approval to Indian Air Force’s proposal for Long Range Stand-Off Weapon (LRSOW) which will be indigenously designed, developed and integrated on SU-30 MKI aircraft.
For artillery modernisation, the proposal has also been cleared for the procurement of 155mm/52 caliber advanced towed artillery gun system, high mobility vehicles (HMVs) and gun towing vehicles for the Indian Army.
This is in addition to the ongoing Dhanush Gun System and K-9 Vajra-T Gun System.
Such course of action are taken up to keep up with the pace and tighten its grip on the Western and northern fronts. As the majority of the challenges and deadlocks are posed here.
The total AoN granted for capital acquisition in the Financial Year 2022-23 is over Rs 2.71 lakh crore, out of which around 99 percent of the procurement will be sourced from Indian industries.
Rajnah Singh’s office tweeted that, “Such quantum of indigenous procurement will not only galvanize the Indian industries towards achieving the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat but also reduce India’s dependency on foreign vendors to a large extent.”
Defense ministry has emphasised that these moves are boosting the capabilities of the indigenous defense manufacturing industry. To counter the impending confrontations, and to reduce the dependency, such steps are perceived as a point of inflection for the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
