Defence Ministry gives green signal for fast-track capital procurements worth Rs 300 crore

New Delhi, July 16: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a special meeting of Defence Acquisition Council in which the council delegated the powers for progressing urgent Capital Acquisition Cases up to Rs 300 crores to the Armed Forces to meet their emergent operational requirements.

 

 

"This will shrink the procurement timelines and ensure placement of orders within six months and commencement of deliveries within one year. The special DAC meeting was convened due to the prevailing security situation along the northern borders (with China) and the need to strengthen the armed forces for the defence of our borders," the statement read.

 

The Indian Army is finalizing several acquisition proposals that range from Spike Firefly loitering munitions and additional “Spike” anti-tank guided missiles and launchers from Israel to small hand-launched Raven drones and 72,000 more SiG Sauer assault rifles from the US.

 

There are also bigger procurement proposals in the pipeline, which will cost much beyond Rs 300 crore, for lightweight tanks that can be deployed in high-altitude regions and additional Israeli “Heron” surveillance as well as missile-armed unmanned aerial vehicles.

 

Earlier, the DAC on July 2 had approved several big capital procurement projects worth Rs 38,900 crore, which included 21 additional MiG-29 and 12 Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets as well as 300 Nirbhay long-range land-attack cruise missiles and 250 Astra air-to-air missiles.