The Defence Acquisition Council gave in-principle approval on October 26 to capital acquisition proposals worth about Rs 2.12 lakh crore for the Army, Navy and Air Force, with about 82% of the value expected to come from Indian industry.
India's Defence Acquisition Council on October 26 gave in-principle approval to capital acquisition proposals worth about Rs 2.12 lakh crore for the Army, Navy and Air Force. The council, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, accorded Acceptance of Necessity, the formal first step in India's defence procurement process, to the proposals.
About 82% of the proposed procurement is expected to be sourced from Indian industry, according to the defence ministry statement carried by multiple outlets. India Strategic put the total at about $22.28 billion. The approval is not a signed contract: the proposals must still go through requests for proposals, trials, price negotiations and final contract approval before any equipment is delivered.
For the Army, the approvals cover high mobility vehicles, a self-propelled tracked gun system, a gun-shot response system, light multi-role helicopters, very short-range air defence systems, platform-based counter-drone systems, long-range unmanned systems, surveillance drones, an integrated surveillance and strike system and a long-range kamikaze drone system. The Navy is to get an Active Offboard Decoy System, which creates false targets to protect ships, along with other major naval platforms. For the Air Force, the list includes helicopters, air defence systems, weapons and a Mobile X-Band Doppler Weather Radar for forward areas.
The ministry summary carried by several outlets agrees on the total value, the 82% Indian-industry share and the equipment lists. One figure stands apart: BusinessLine, citing defence sources, reported a Rs 20,000 crore proposal within the package for 200 light multi-role helicopters for the Army and Air Force, partly replacing about 400 Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. That helicopter figure did not appear in the ministry summary reproduced elsewhere, so it rests on BusinessLine's sourcing rather than on the published ministry statement.
The clearance follows a September round worth about Rs 1.10 lakh crore and a March round worth about Rs 2.38 lakh crore, showing how much of this year's procurement pipeline is being pushed through in-principle approvals. The stakes are industrial as much as military: if the 82% domestic share holds through contracting, a large part of the spending will flow to Indian manufacturers, but the ministry has announced no contract dates, suppliers or delivery schedules, so the pace at which approvals turn into hardware remains unproven.
The next test is the contracting stage. Watch for the requests for proposals and the helicopter competition in particular, where BusinessLine reported Tata Advanced Systems with Airbus, the Adani Group with Leonardo, and Bell Helicopters of the United States as expected bidders.