The Defence Ministry on Thursday signed a slew of defence contracts, worth thousands of crores, for multiple big-ticket, indigenous acquisitions for the armed forces in a move that will significantly boost their operational capabilities.
The contracts — a majority of them signed with defence PSUs — were concluded a day before 2022-23 ends, with the government aiming at spending the maximum defence capital acquisition funds and minimising surrender in the backdrop of its inability to process outstanding Rouble payments for weapons purchased from Russia.
On March 15, The Indian Express had first reported the government’s plans to go for a range of ships, aircraft, missiles and other critical military equipment for the Army, Navy, and the Air Force (IAF) — and the list of acquisitions on cards — by the end of March in a bid to use pending capital defence budget.
The majority of the contracts signed on Thursday was for the Navy. This included those for the acquisition of 11 Next-Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels with Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, at a total cost of Rs 9,781 crore.
According to the ministry, seven ships will be indigenously designed, developed and manufactured by GSL, and four by GRSE. Their deliveries are scheduled to start from September 2026.
Another important acquisition for the Navy was six Next-Gen Missile Vessels (NGMV). The contract for this was signed with Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) at a cost of Rs 9,805 crore. The delivery of the ships, which will undertake maritime strike operations, anti-surface warfare operations, is scheduled to start from March 2027.
A third contract was signed with BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL) for procurement of Next-Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries (long-range) and BrahMos missiles at a cost of more than Rs 1,700 crore. As per the Defence Ministry, these systems will be equipped with supersonic BrahMos missiles and will enhance multi-directional maritime strike capability of the Navy.
Additionally, a contract to procure 13 Lynx-U2 Fire Control Systems for the Navy was also signed with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) at a cost of more than Rs 1,700 crore.
On Wednesday, a separate contract with BEL was signed to acquire Sarang Electronic Support Measure (ESM) systems, along with associated engineering support package, at a cost of Rs 412 crore for the Navy. Earlier this month, the CCS had accorded approval to sign a contract with L&T for acquisition of three cadet training ships worth Rs 3,108.09 crore.
A critical acquisition on cards for the Navy — the Fleet Support Ship — could not go through immediately, it was informed.
On Thursday, the ministry also signed contracts with Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and BEL for procurement of improved Akash Weapon System and 12 Weapon Locating Radars, WLR Swathi (Plains) for the Army at an overall cost of over Rs 9,100 crore.