Clearing a long pending deal, the Defence Acquisition Council which met on Friday approved procurement of 12 SU-30MKI jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF). These will be license manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and cost under ₹11,000 crore. These will replace aircraft that have been lost over the years. The IAF has been pushing for additional Sukhois as well 21 Mig-29s to arrest its falling fighter strength before newer inductions come in.
The DAC cleared Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for nine capital acquisition proposals of the armed forces worth ₹45,000 crore.
During the meeting, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh stated that it is time to upgrade ambitions towards indigenisation, a Defence Ministry statement said. “Rather than a threshold of 50% indigenous content for Indian-Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) projects, we should aim for a minimum 60-65% indigenous content,” he said according to the statement.
