The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has approved capital acquisition proposals of various weapons/ platforms/ equipment/ systems required by the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force in New Delhi on 23 February 2021.
In all, three acceptance of necessities (AoNs) for an overall cost of Rs 13,700 crore were accorded.
All these AoNs are in the highest priority category of defence acquisition viz 'Buy [Indian-IDDM’ (indigenously designed, developed and manufactured)].
All these acquisition proposals will be indigenously designed, developed and manufactured. These will include inter-alia platforms and systems designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
To meet the Atmanirbhar Bharat goals of the Centre on time-bound defence procurement process and faster decision making and to systematically work towards reducing the time taken for capital acquisition, the DAC also approved that all capital acquisition contracts (delegated and non-delegated) other than D&D cases shall be concluded in two years.
The ministry, in consultation with the services and all stakeholders, will come up with detailed plan of action for achieving the same.