The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Thursday (November 30) cleared defence acquisition projects worth ₹2.23 lakh crore — that included procurement of 97 Tejas light combat aircraft and 156 Prachand combat helicopters at a cost of around ₹65,000 crore.
The DAC also approved a proposal of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to upgrade its Su-30 fighter fleet by state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
"Happy to note that 98 percent of these platforms/equipments (sic) to be sourced from the domestic industries. This decision will provide further boost to ‘Make in India’ and strengthen self-reliance in Defence sector," Rajnath Singh said in a statement.
The DAC further accorded the acceptance of necessity (AoN) for procurement of two types of anti-tank munitions — area denial munition (ADM) type-2 and type-3. The top body on procurement of military hardware also cleared the acquisition and integration of automatic target tracker (ATT) and digital basaltic computer (DBC) for T-90 tanks.
Earlier in July 2023, the DAC had approved plans to buy 26 Rafale fighter aircraft and three Scorpene class conventional submarines for the Indian Navy from France.
