New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has cleared the procurement of Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Recce Vehicles by the Army, advanced radars by the Navy and a ground-based jammers by the Air Force.
“The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), under the chairmanship of defence minister Rajnath Singh accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) i.e., in-principle administrative approval to various acquisition proposals of the defence forces at an estimated cost of about Rs 1,10,000 crore on Monday.
“The Indian Army, was granted approval for the procurement of CBRN Recce Vehicles, High Mobility Vehicles (HMVs), Self-Propelled Mechanical Mine Layers (MML), Advanced Light Helicopters (ALHs), Trawl Tanks and Sarvatra Bridge System. The CBRN Recce Vehicles will be capable of detecting, identifying, monitoring and marking of areas contaminated with CBRN agents. The HMVs will enhance operational capabilities, logistic support and mobility in challenging terrains. The MMLs will achieve the desired operational capability in terms of fast and responsive minelaying in difficult terrains,” the MoD said in a release.
The ALHs will execute complex missions across all terrains and operational situations for the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. The Trawl Tanks and Bridge System will be utilised to provide composite crossings to fighting formations during operations in varied terrains.
The Indian Navy can procure Arudhra Radars, design, develop and subsequently acquire Marine Gas Turbines (MGT). He Arudhra Radar will replace the existing Air Route Surveillance Radars at various Naval Air Stations and MGT, a warship propulsion system, will reduce dependency on foreign vendors.
“For the Indian Air Force, approval was granted to various proposals to enhance the war-fighting capability of fighters, transports and helicopters. Approval was also accorded for procuring Ground-Based Multi-Purpose Jammer (GBMPJ) and installing Defence Forces Secure Access Card (DEFSAC) System. The GBMPJ will provide effective jamming against radars of adversaries and DEFSAC will replace existing paper based Identity Card/Passes/Permits with an interoperable Radio Frequency Identification-based smart cards system,” the statement said.
In keeping with the Atmanirbharta vision, of the total AoNs accorded, nearly 98% will be made from the Indian industry.
