DAC approves Rs3,300-cr `make-in-India’ contracts for defence forces
24 Oct 2019
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on Wednesday approved capital procurement for the defence forces amounting to over Rs3,300 crore of indigenously designed and developed equipment.
The DAC, headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh accorded approval for three projects, to be indigenously designed, developed and manufactured by the Indian industry, maintaining its impetus on the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
The first two projects include third generation Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) and the Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) for the T-72 and T-90 Tanks. While the third generation ATGM would provide ‘Fire and Forget’ and “Top Attack” capabilities to the troops in an armoured battle, the APUs would enable incorporation of various upgrades to Fire Control System and Night Fighting capabilities of the tanks. Both these projects will be progressed under the ‘Make-II’ Category and will provide a boost to indigenous research and development in the private sector.
This is the first time the ministry of defence has offered complex military equipment to be designed, developed and manufactured by the Indian private industry.
The third indigenous project pertains to discrete Electronic Warfare (EW) systems for the mountain and High Altitude terrain, which would be designed and developed by DRDO and manufactured by design-cum-production partner from the Indian industry.