Defence Council approves acquisition of fighter aircraft, missiles worth Rs 38,900 cr

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 2

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in its meeting held on Thursday, under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, accorded approval for capital acquisitions of various platforms and equipment worth Rs 38,900 crore approximately.

Focused on indigenous design and development, these approvals include acquisitions amounting to Rs 31,130 crore from the Indian industry. The equipment is to be manufactured in India involving Indian defence industry with participation of several MSMEs as prime tier vendors, read an official statement. 

The indigenous content in some of these projects is up to 80 per cent of the project cost.

A large number of these projects have been made possible due to transfer of technology by the DRDO to the indigenous industry. These include Pinaka ammunitions, BMP armament upgrades and software defined radios for the Army, besides long range land attack cruise missile systems and Astra missiles for Navy and Air Force. The cost of these design and development proposals is in the range of Rs 20,400 core, the statement added.

Acquisition of new/additional missile systems will add to the fire power of the three Services. While acquisition of Pinaka missile systems will enable raising additional regiments over and above the ones already inducted, addition of long range land attack missile systems having a firing range of 1,000 km to the existing arsenal will bolster the attack capabilities of the Navy and the Air Force. 

Similarly, induction of Astra missiles having beyond visual range capability will serve as a force multiplier and immensely add to the strike capability of the Navy and Air Force, read the statement.

Further, addressing the long felt need of the Indian Air Force to increase its fighter squadrons, the DAC also approved the proposal for procurement of 21 MIG-29 fighter aircraft and upgrade of existing 59 Mig-29 aircraft and procurement of 12 additional Su-30 MKI fighters.

While the MIG 29 procurement from Russia is estimated to cost Rs 7,418 crore, the Su-30 MKI will be procured from HAL at an estimated cost of Rs 10,730 crore.