Army Issues Tenders For Buying Guns, Drones From Domestic Manufacturers

With an aim to gear up for the future and fight future wars with indigenous weapons, the Indian Army has issued multiple tenders to buy guns, missiles, drones and many other systems from domestic manufacturers for meeting critical requirements under emergency procurement procedures.

"We have invited the Indian defence industry to offer critical defence equipment for emergency procurement. Proposals are being fielded for guns, missiles, drones, counter-drone, loiter munition, communication and optical systems, specialist Vehicles, engineering equipment and alternate energy resources," the Indian Army said today.

The process will be based on compressed timelines, wherein the procurement window will be open to Indian Industry for six months and the industry would be expected to deliver equipment within one year of signing the contract. Procurement cases will be based on Open Tender Enquiry, the force said.

Under emergency procurement powers, the armed forces can buy equipment worth Rs 300 crores under capital procurement cases and Rs 500 crores under revenue procurement cases.

The clearance for making these procurements was accorded to the three services in the last defence acquisition council held by the Narendra Modi government.

The forces have been granted these powers for a six months window where they can buy any weapon system of their choice produced under the Make in India route.

However, earlier the services had the freedom to do deals with foreign vendors also directly and multiple contracts were signed post-May 2020 in which Heron drones, Spike anti-tank guided missiles and many other critical requirements of the forces were fulfilled.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)