The Defence Ministry on Monday cleared acquisitions worth over Rs 3,300 crore for the Indian Army including Made in India anti-tank guided missiles for taking out enemy tanks. The defence acquisition council, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, approved three projects to design, develop and manufacture defence equipment by private companies in India in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s flagship initiative — ‘Make in India’. The projects include manufacturing of the third generation Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM), Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) for T-72 and T-90 Tanks. The third project pertains to discrete Electronic Warfare (EW) systems for the mountain and high altitude terrain. The EW system would be designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by a design-cum-production partner from the Indian industry, the government said. While the third-generation ATGM would provide “fire and forget” and “top attack” capabilities to the troops in an armoured battle, the APUs would enable the incorporation of various upgrades to Fire Control System and Night Fighting capabilities of the Tanks. “Both the projects will be progressed under the ‘Make-II’ Category and will provide a boost to indigenous research and development in the private sector,” according to an official release. The Ministry of Defence, the release said, has offered complex military equipment to be designed, developed and manufactured by the Indian private industry for the first time. Last month, the council approved proposals for capital procurement of approximately Rs 2,000 crore including indigenous production of special ammunition for T-72/T-90 tanks to increase the capacity of the Army to penetrate enemy armour.
