The Defence Acquisition Council has approved procurement of indigenous arms worth Rs 28,732 crore, as part of the government’s initiative to boost the domestic small arms manufacturing industry.
It includes Indian army’s proposal for guided extended range rocket ammunition, area denial munition type I and infantry combat vehicle-command designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, according to a government statement. The total value of the three proposals is Rs 8,599 crore.
The council, headed by Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh, also approved procurement of swarm drones, bulletproof jackets and close-quarter battle carbines.
For the navy, it cleared procurement of an upgraded 1,250-kilowatt capacity marine gas turbine generator for power generation onboard Kolkata class of ships.
The council also gave its nod for 14 fast patrol vessels with a minimum of 60% indigenous content for the Indian coast guard.
All the proposals were accorded under the Buy (Indian indigenously designed, developed and manufactured) and Buy (Indian) categories of the defence procurement procedure.
