The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for nine capital acquisition proposals worth about Rs 45,000 crore for the armed forces at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.

All these procurements will be made from Indian vendors under the Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDMM)/Buy (Indian) category which will give a substantial boost to the Indian defence Industry towards achieving the goal of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

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To enhance the protection, mobility, attack capability and increased survivability of Mechanised Forces, the DAC accorded the AoN for procurement of Light Armoured Multipurpose Vehicles (LAMV) and Integrated Surveillance and Targeting System (ISAT-S). The DAC cleared AoN for procurement of High Mobility Vehicle (HMV) Gun Towing Vehicles for swift mobilisation and deployment of Artillery Guns and Radars.

The DAC also approved the procurement of Next Generation Survey Vessels for the Indian Navy which will greatly enhance its capabilities in performing Hydrographic Operations.

The DAC also accorded AoN for proposals of the Indian Air Force which included Avionic upgradation of Dornier Aircraft to improve the accuracy and reliability of operations. The procurement of Dhruvastra Short Range Air-to-Surface Missile as a potent Indigenous Precision Guided Weapon for indigenously built ALH Mk-IV Helicopters has been cleared by the DAC. The AoN for the procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI Aircraft with associated equipment from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was also accorded.

During the meeting,  Mr Rajnath Singh stated that it is time to upgrade the ambitions towards indigenisation. “Rather than a threshold of 50% indigenous content for IDDM projects, we should aim for a minimum 60-65% indigenous content,” he said.

The minister directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs, Defence Secretary and DG (Acquisition) to work towards increasing the minimum indigenous content threshold in consultation with the Indian Industry.