The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, accorded approval to capital acquisition proposals of the three Services worth approximately ₹13,165 crore.
Important Highlights:
- The key proposals include helicopters, guided munitions and rocket ammunition.
- Of these, procurements worth ₹11,486 crore were from domestic sources.
- “Looking into the need of the Indian Army for an Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) Squadron, to improve its integral lift capability ensuring its operational preparedness, the DAC accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for procurement of 25 Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH)-Mark III helicopters from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under Buy Indian-IDDM at an approximate cost of ₹3,850 crore,” a Ministry statement stated.
- To give a boost to indigenous design and development of ammunition, the DAC approved the procurement of Terminally Guided Munition (TGM) and rocket ammunition under Buy (Indian-IDDM) category at an approximate cost of ₹4,962 crore from domestic sources.
- Other proposals worth ₹4,353 crore were also accorded AoN by the DAC.
- Further, the DAC approved a few amendments to the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 as a part of business process re-engineering to ensure further ease of doing business for the industry as well as measures to enhance procurement efficiency and reduce the timelines.
Defence Acquisition Council
- The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) is the highest decision-making body in the Defence Ministry for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Indian Coast Guard.
- The Minister of Defence is the Chairman of the Council.
- It was formed, after the Group of Ministers recommendations on ‘Reforming the National Security System’, in 2001, post Kargil War (1999).