In the current situation and the need to strengthen the Armed Forces for the Defence of our borders and in line with our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s clarion call for ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ the Defence Acquisition Council in its meeting of 2nd July 2020 held under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh accorded approval for Capital acquisitions of various platforms and equipments required by the Indian Armed Forces. Proposals for an approximate cost of Rs 38900 Cr were approved.
Focused on indigenous design and development these approvals include acquisitions from Indian Industry of Rs 31130 Cr. The equipments are to be manufactured in India involving Indian Defence Industry with participation of several MSMEs as prime tier vendors. The Indigenous content in some of these projects is up to 80% of the project cost. A large number of these projects have been made possible due to Transfer of Technology by DRDO to the Indigenous Industry. These include Pinaka ammunitions, BMP armament upgrades and Software Defined Radios for the Army, 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 20400 cr.
Acquisition of new/additional missile systems will add to the fire power of 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 1000 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 Navy and Air Force.
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 along with upgradation of existing 59 Mig-29 aircrafts and procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI aircrafts. While the MIG 29 procurement and upgradation from Russia is estimated to cost Rs 7418 Cr, the Su-30 MKI will be procured from HAL at an estimated cost of Rs 10730 Cr.
