India and Singapore agree to boost defence cooperation
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Singapore's Minister of Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen, co-chaired the sixth India-Singapore Defence Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi on Tuesday.
In a landmark step, the government has offered four projects to the Indian industry for design & development under Make-I category of Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 to give a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Aatmanirbharta’.
The industry will be provided financial support for prototype development of these projects, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said today.
The projects accorded ‘Approval In-Principle (AIP)’ by the Collegiate Committee of MoD are: IAF: Communication Equipment with Indian Security Protocols (Routers, Switches, Encryptors, VoIP Phones and their software); Airborne Electro Optical pod with Ground Based System; and Airborne Stand-off Jammer; and Indian Army: Indian Light Tank.
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This is for the first time since the launch of industry-friendly DAP-2020 that the Indian industry has been involved in development of big ticket platforms such as Light tank and Communication Equipment with Indian security protocols.
In addition, AIP has also been accorded to following five projects under industry-funded Make-II procedure:
IAF: Full Motion Simulator for Apache Helicopter; Full Motion Simulator for Chinook Helicopter; and Wearable Robotic Equipment for Aircraft Maintenance.
Indian Army: Integrated Surveillance and Targeting System for Mechanised Forces; and Autonomous Combat Vehicle
The indigenous development of these projects in the country is expected to help harness the design capabilities of Indian defence Industry and position India as a design leader in these technologies.
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