A major boost to 'Make In India' initiative! DAC paves way for acquisition of 83 Tejas fighter jets

New Delhi, March 19: Uplifting PM Modi-led government's 'Make in India' initiative, the Defence Ministry's Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on Thursday agreed to supply indigenous 83 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) to the Indian Air Force, further nodding affirmatively for LCA procurement with more advanced configurations.

 

 

"The Tejas Light Combat Aircraft indigenously-designed by Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is going to be the backbone of Indian Air Force in future. While orders of 40 Tejas aircraft had been placed with HAL in initial configurations, DAC paved the way for procurement of 83 of the more advanced Mk1A version of the aircraft from HAL by finalising the contractual and other issues. The proposal will now be placed for consideration of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS)," the statement from the defence ministry informed.

 

 

Having said that, it added that it will be a major boost to 'Make in India' as the aircraft is indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with the participation of several local vendors apart from HAL. The DAC also granted its consent for the acquisition of indigenous defence equipment including Aerial Fuses and Twin-Dome Simulators for Hawk Mk32 aircraft for the IAF at a cost of Rs 1,300 crore. (Tejas Light Combat Aircraft)

 

Under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the first DAC meeting was conducted with the Acquisition Wing being the Secretariat to DAC. This is slated to enable to have better co-ordination and faster processing of cases with the Acquisition wing as it is in the overall charge of the Capital acquisition process.

 

"The DAC approved an amendment to the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016 to enable review by a Costing Committee of bids submitted by Joint Ventures of Defence Public Sector Undertakings from whom procurement of Defence items is undertaken on a nomination basis. This will bring about more transparency in costs and compress the timelines for negotiation of the contract," it added. Earlier, HAL had demanded a massive Rs 56, 500 crore as the overall cost for the same project. However, after several negotiations, HAL had finally agreed with the cost of Rs 39,000 crore.