Rajnath-headed DAC clears projects worth Rs 76,390 crore for armed forces

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the defence ministry’s apex procurement body chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Monday green-lighted armed forces capital acquisition proposals for the military amounting to Rs 76,390 crore.

The ministry has announced that the clearance is under the high-priority categories of ‘Buy (Indian)’, ‘Buy & Make (Indian)’ and ‘Buy (Indian - Indian Designed, Dev­­­e­­loped, and Manu­factured),’ or ‘Buy Indian (IDDM)”.  “This will provide a substantial boost to the Indian defence industry and reduce foreign spending significantly,” stated the ministry.

While that is true, it is noteworthy that the ministry has only accorded “Acceptance of Necessity” (AoN) for the purchases, which is just the first stage of a long-winded acquisition process. It can take anything from five-to-fifteen years for an AoN to translate into a contract and for the actual delivery of military equipment and platforms.

For the Indian Navy, the DAC accorded AoNs for procurement of seven next-generation corvettes (NGC), at an estimated cost of approximately Rs 36,000 crore. “These NGCs will be versatile platforms for a variety of roles, viz. surveillance missions, escort operations, deterrence, surface action group (SAG) operations, search and attack, and coastal defence,” stated the ministry.

 Corvettes are the smallest vessels in the category of capital warships. They are traditionally between 500-to-2,000 tonnes, while a frigate, the size class above a corvette, is roughly between 2,000-to-5,000 tonnes. In modern usage, the types of ships below corvettes are coastal patrol craft, missile boats and fast attack craft.

The Navy has specified that the corvettes must have a range that exceeds 4,000 nautical miles and must be capable of sailing at 27 knots. The 120-meter-long, single-hull corvette must have low radar, acoustic, magnetic, visual, and infra-red signatures. It wants active towed array sonar and two light-weight torpedo laun­chers fitted to the corvettes.

“These NGCs would be constructed based on the new in-house design of the Navy, using the latest technology of ship building and would contribute to furthering the government’s initiative of SAGAR (Security and Growth for all in the Region),” said the MoD.

“For the Army, the DAC accorded fresh AoNs for procurement of rough terrain forklift trucks, bridge laying tanks, wheeled armoured fighting vehicles with anti-tank-guided missiles and weapon locating radars through domestic sources with emphasis on indigenous design and development,” said the ministry.

For the Indian Air Force, the DAC accorded AoNs for manufacture by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) of Dornier-228 reconnaissance aircraft, and Sukhoi-30 MKI aero-engines.

“The focus (will be) on enhancing indigenisation, particularly on indigenising aero-engine material,” said the DAC.

In pursuance of the government’s vision for digital transformation in defence, the DAC approved the “Digital Coast Guard” project under the Buy (Indian) acquisition category. Under this project, a secure, pan-Indian network will be established for digitising various surface and aviation operations, logistics, finance, and human resource processes in the Coast Guard.