Recce aircraft to anti-tank mines: Green light to big-ticket purchases

Sources said these 15 maritime reconnaissance aircraft will be the marine versions of the C-295 medium lift tactical aircraft inducted by the IAF last year. Of the 15, nine will be for the Navy and six for the Coast Guard.

A senior official said that once inducted, the aircraft will be a major addition to the existing P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft used by the forces for surveillance patrols and interdiction, and will significantly augment the capability of the forces. “They will be configured accordingly with indigenously designed and manufactured sensors,” the official said.

Another major acquisition cleared was that of midair refuellers for the IAF. These will be procured in addition to another tanker which the IAF would take on lease from interested global vendors to meet its training needs in the interim.

The Indian Express had reported last year that the IAF was looking to procure “pre-owned” aircraft – which can be modified into tankers – for its tanker requirement so that they can serve for 25-30 years.

The IAF has been trying to buy these strategic assets since 2007 and two earlier attempts had not gone through.

When inducted, the refuellers would fill a critical capability gap in the IAF’s inventory and would prove to be a vital strategic asset and a force multiplier as they will allow fighter jets to stay airborne longer.

Currently, the IAF operates a fleet of six Russian IIyushin-78 tankers procured in 2003-04, but at any given time only three-four are serviceable. Last year, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) also signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to convert Boeing 767 passenger aircraft into tankers in India.

Proposals to procure active towed array sonar with capabilities to operate at low frequencies and various depths for long range detection of adversary submarines, heavy weight torpedoes for enhancing the attacking capabilities of the Navy’s Kalvari Class submarines have also been cleared by the DAC.

Proposals for follow on support (FOS) and repair replenishment support through follow on supply support (FOSS) for 24 MH-60R helicopters under the Foreign Military Sale route with the US government have also been shown the green light.

Other proposals cleared include those for procurement of software defined radios for the Coast Guard to enhance its high-speed communication capabilities with secure networking capability for seamless information exchange between the Coast Guard and Navy units.

The DAC also accorded the AoN under the Buy IDDM (Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured) category for new generation anti-tank mines for the Army. According to an official statement, these will have seismic sensors and provision of remote deactivation with additional safety features.

To enhance the operational efficiency and domination in the tactical battle area for engaging targets that are beyond the line of sight by the Army’s mechanised forces, AoNs were also granted for procurement of canister launched anti-armour loiter munition system and air defence tactical control radars to strengthen the existing air defence systems of the Army, especially capabilities to detect slow, small and low-flying targets as well as surveillance, detection and tracking of different targets.

The DAC also approved amendments to the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 dealing with benchmarking and cost computation, payment schedule, procurement quantity etc.

The Ministry of Defence, in its statement, said, “This will provide the much-needed incentive along with a supportive business environment for the start-ups and MSMEs under iDEX and TDF schemes, truly in the spirit of Ease of Doing Business.”