NEW DELHI : The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the sourcing of Rs3,300 crore worth of indigenously designed and developed weapons including anti-tank missiles and electronic warfare systems for the Indian Army.

The move comes amid efforts by India to broaden its domestic defence manufacturing base under the ‘Make in India’ programme given that India is one of the biggest buyers of defence hardware.

A Pentagon report over the weekend said India’s defence purchases from the US would reach $18 billion soon.

“With this(the award of contracts), for the first time the Ministry of Defence has offered complex military equipment to be designed, developed and manufactured by the Indian private industry," the defence ministry said in a statement.

The contracts for weapons awarded to Indian industry included third generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and the auxiliary power units (APUs) for the T-72 and T-90 tanks, the defence ministry statement said.

“While the third generation ATGM would provide ‘Fire and Forget’ 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," it said. “Both these projects will be manufactured under the ‘Make-II’ category and will provide a boost to indigenous research and development in the private sector.

The third indigenous project “pertains to discreet 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," the statement added.

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Share Via