The Central government has cleared proposals of more than Rs 20,000 crore for the procurement of air defence missile systems and a set of other equipment for the Indian army. This comes following the criticism faced by the centre in delaying military acquisitions. This includes approval for 8 regiments of Quick Reaction-Surface to Air Missiles (QR-SAMs) by the Defence Acquisition Council. The clearance comes in awake of the serious allegations raised by former Army Chief Gen VK Singh over 97 per cent obsolescence in the air defence systems.

Sources have stated that the IAF proposals will be implemented as a nation-wide network at the cost of Rs 7000 crore. This comes following the success of the pilot project of the Air Force Network. Procurement of 30 mm guns for Navy and Coast Guard warships hav also been approved. Other significant projects that have been cleared are :

• 14 Dornier aircraft, setting up a nationwide communication network, guns for navy and coast guard ships worth over Rs 8,500 crore
• 8 regiments of QR-SAMs worth over Rs 10,000 crore, out of which 3 will be procured during the ongoing 12th Defence Plan

The army also plans to issue a global request for procurement of missiles to replace the Russian Kvadrats. The contenders in the project include American Raytheon, Israeli Rafael and French MBDA. DRDO also plans the co-development of similar QR-SAMs as a French collaboration. The agreement is likely to come through soon.

0saves

Save

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Short URL: http://indiawires.com/?p=11660