Defence Acquisition Council approves procurement for Services amounting to approximately 46 thousand crore rupees; More than 21 thousand crores rupees to be used to procure 111 Utility Helicopters for Indian Navy; This is the first project under Defence Ministry’s strategic partnership model to provide fillip to Make In India Programme.

In a major decision, the defence ministry on Saturday approved procurement of 111 utility helicopters for the navy at a cost of over Rs 21,000 crore.The ministry cleared procurement proposals worth nearly Rs 46,000 crore which included the acquisition of the helicopters. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The Defence Acquisition Council also granted approval to other proposals amounting to around 25 thousand crore rupees.This includes procurement of 150 Indigenously Designed and Developed Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems for the Indian Army at a cost of around 3,365 core rupees.

The DAC also accorded approval to procure 24 multi-role helicopters to enhance the capability of Navy at sea.

In addition to it, procurement of 14 Vertically Launched Short Range Missile Systems was also cleared by the DAC. Of them, 10 systems will be indigenously developed. These systems will boost the self-defence capability of ships against Anti-Ship Missiles.