Govt approved 119 defence proposals worth Rs 2.16 Lakh Cr in last 3 years: Ajay Bhatt

New Delhi: The Central Government has accorded the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) to as many as 119 Defence proposals, worth Rs 2,15,690 crore (approximately) under the various categories of capital acquisition, which promotes domestic manufacturing as per Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) in the last three financial years i.e. from 2018-19 to 2020-2021. This information has been given by the Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Ajay Bhatt in Rajya Sabha in a written reply on Monday. He informed the upper house of the parliament that the 'Make in India' is implemented in the defence sector through various policy initiatives which promote indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence items.

As per DAP, priority has been accorded to capital acquisition through 'Buy (Indian-IDDM)', 'Buy (Indian)', 'Buy and Make (Indian)', 'Buy and Make' 'Strategic Partnership Model' or 'Make' categories over Buy (Global) category.

"Many significant projects including 155 mm Artillery Gun system 'Dhanush', Bridge Laying Tank, Thermal Imaging Sight Mark-II for T-72 tank, Light Combat Aircraft 'Tejas', 'Akash' Surface to Air Missile system, Submarine 'INS Kalvari', 'INS Chennai', Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette (ASWC), Arjun Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle, Landing craft utility, etc. have been produced in the country under 'Make in India' initiative of the government in last few years," it added.

"The production of indigenous defence equipment and innovations therein is a dynamic process and their development is decided on the basis of operational requirements of the Armed Forces.  So, no specific timeline can be assigned in such cases.  Procurement of defence equipment is undertaken from various domestic as well as foreign vendors, based on threat perception, operational challenges and technological changes and to keep the Armed Forces in a state of readiness to face the security challenges," he further informed.

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