The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given approval for proposal to buy nine maritime surveillance aircraft for the Indian Navy and six maritime patrol aircraft for the Indian Coast Guard, sources said.
The 15 maritime patrol planes would be built upon the Made-in-India C-295 transport aircraft and the worth of the projects is around Rs 29,000 crore.
The transport aircraft will have features including radars, sensors by the Defence Research and Development Organisation's Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS).
"There are plans for acquiring long-range maritime surveillance aircraft, which the Air Force has taken, and the contracts will be signed with TASL (Tata Advanced Systems Limited), wherein we are about to get six C-295 transport aircraft," Indian Coast Guard Chief Director General Rakesh Pal said.
The approval lays special emphasis on procurement of equipment from Indian vendors.
In another development, MoD approved the proposal for procurement of new generation Air Defence Tactical Control Radar (ADTCR) and heavyweight Torpedoes for the armed forces.
MoD further said that its Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, accorded approval for Acceptance of Necessity (AoNs) for various capital acquisition proposals amounting to Rs 84,560 crore.
The DAC has also given approval for Anti-Tank Mines having seismic sensors and provision for remote deactivation with additional safety features.
The Defence Ministry said that to create a friendly Defence start-up ecosystem and promote procurement of advanced technologies from start-ups and MSMEs developed under the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and Technology Development Fund (TDF) schemes, the DAC has approved amendments in the Defence Acquisition Procedure.
This will provide the much-needed incentive along with a supportive business environment for the startups and MSMEs under iDEX and TDF schemes, truly in the spirit of ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
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