Department of Defence has prepared the draft ‘Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP)-2026’ to propel Jointness, Atmanirbharta & Integration, Force Modernisation, and Speed of acquisition with scaling of production, leading to the growth and development of defence ecosystem in the country. The proposed draft aims to align India’s defence acquisition with the rapidly evolving geo-strategic landscape, growth of the Indian economy, skilling of human capital, growth of the private defence industry in the country and the technological imperatives of modern warfare.
Once approved, it will replace the Defence Acquisition Procedure-2020 in vogue now. DAP, the cornerstone for the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative in defence, focuses on institutionalised preference for ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’ (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category for procurement, thereby boosting domestic manufacturing and effective reduction of imports.
The proposed draft will ensure categorisation and procurement strategy based on technological availability and manufacturing readiness, exclusive procedures for faster acquisition of equipment with short technological cycle, spiral designing & procurement of major platforms, exploitation of modern technology before bulk procurement, pragmatic Indigenous Content (IC) and Indigenous Design (ID) content evaluation, and utilisation of indigenous military material, among others.
The new DAP proposes to ease financial and experience criteria for inclusive participation, delegation of decision making for quicker acquisition, revamping of trials and quality assurance processes, aggressive infusion of digitisation & automation in acquisition procedures and processes, Atmanirbharta with focus on indigenous designing & retention of IPR, along with incentives for innovations. The DAP would boost defence manufacturing and exports, along with restrictions on import to domestically non-available and critical equipment only.
The draft DAP-2026 document, including the Handbook on Guidelines & Annexures, has been uploaded on the website of MoD (https://mod.gov.in).
Ministry of Defence seeks comments / suggestions on the draft DAP-2026 from stakeholders through email at secy-dap2025[at]gov[dot]in or tmls-mod[at]nic[dot]in, in pdf or MS Word format, within a period of three weeks, i.e., latest by 03.03.2026, as per the prescribed format hosted at the website.
While the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) 2025 deals with maintenance & sustenance of defence equipment / platforms / systems, etc. under the Revenue head of expenditure, the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) deals with the capital procurement of equipment / platforms / systems, etc. under the Capital head of expenditure.
The DAP-2026 intends to weave the security of the nation and technological growth in a single thread and create the canvas for Viksit Bharat-2047.
