Defence Acquisition Council okays 8 new warships for Navy, special vehicles for Army

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, June 6 

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Monday okayed making eight new warships, surveillance planes, new vehicles for war fighting in the Himalayas and has asked Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to focus on indigenous making of aero-engine manufacturing.

The DAC is the apex decision making body of the Ministry of Defence and is chaired by the Defence Minister. The DAC has accorded acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the procurement of next generation corvettes (NGC) at an estimated cost of Rs 36,000 crore. The AoN is the first step for the procurement procedure.

These next generation corvettes are part of the Indian Navy’s ongoing plan to have a 175-ship Navy. The warships, the NGC, will be versatile platforms for variety of roles like surveillance missions, escort operations, deterrence, surface action group (SAG) operations, search and attack and coastal defence. These NGCs would be constructed based on new in-house design of Indian Navy using latest technology of ship-building. 

The DAC also accorded AoNs for the manufacture of Dornier aircrafts and Su-30 MKI aero-engines by HAL, with focus on enhancing indigenisation, particularly in indigenising aero-engine material. The Dornier’s will be modified for a role in surveillance and intelligence gathering.

DAC okays AoNs for capital acquisition

Proposals of the armed forces amounting to Rs 76,390 crore were accorded at the meeting. All the equipment will be sourced locally. For the Army, the DAC has accorded fresh AoNs for procurement of Rough Terrain Fork Lift Trucks (RTFLTs), Bridge-Laying Tanks (BLTs), Wheeled. Armoured Fighting Vehicles with Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) and Weapon-Locating Radars (WRs) through indigenous sources, with emphasis on indigenous design and development.

In pursuance of the government’s vision for digital transformation in defence, “Digital Coast Guard” Project under the ‘Buy (Indian) Category’ has been approved by the DAC. Under this project, a pan India secure network for digitising various surface and aviation operations, logistics, finance and HR processes in the Indian Coast Guard will be established.

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