Will the Defense Forces of India up their game and strategies with the addition of the possible Rs. 46000 crores projects in their catalog?
The Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday approved major projects worth about Rs 46,000 crore, including Naval utility and anti-submarine capable helicopters and Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems for the army.
The DAC approved the procurement of 111 utility helicopters for the navy at a cost of over Rs 21,000 crore. The helicopter is important for the Navy’s tasks of ferrying supplies and troops to warships. This is the first project under the MoD’s Strategic Partnership (SP) model that aims at indigenous manufacturing of major defense platforms by an Indian Strategic Partner in collaboration with a foreign manufacturer. The model looks at promoting India as a manufacturing hub for defense equipment, establishing an industrial and R&D ecosystem, capable of meeting the future defense requirements.
The DAC also approved the procurement of 24 anti-submarine capable multi-role helicopters. These are an integral part of warships and aircraft carriers. “The availability of MRH with the Navy would plug the existing capability gap,” said a statement issued by the defense ministry.
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Such choppers in anti-submarine warfare role fly ahead of warships, place their sonar into the deep waters, search for enemy submarines and release torpedoes and depth charges against them to clear the path for the fleet. Its sonar suite provides navigation, situational awareness, target data and weapon guidance. Therefore an NMRH has the flexibility of being used for any role and remains the Navy’s eyes and ears.
The navy is currently faced with a depleting fleet of these two kinds of helicopters. It had issued Requests for Information for the two in August 2017.
Meanwhile, the DAC also approved a few other proposals, amounting to Rs 24,879.16 crore. This includes the procurement of 150 indigenously designed and developed 155mm Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems at a cost of Rs 3,364.78 crore. These guns have been designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and will be manufactured by production agencies, as nominated by DRDO. The defense ministry says these guns are likely to be the mainstay of the artillery. It is also being looked at providing a fillip to the ‘Make in India’ push. This will happen while the supply of M777 Howitzer guns continues.
The procurement of 14 Vertically Launched Short Range Missile Systems was also cleared by the DAC. Of these, 10 systems will be indigenously developed. They are aimed at boosting the self-defence capability of ships against Anti-Ship Missiles
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