Army to get infantry combat vehicles soon

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Tuesday gave the nod for the procurement of infantry combat vehicles for the Army and a survey training vessel for the Navy at a combined cost of about 1, 850 crores.

 While the BMP-2 infantry vehicles for the mechanised infantry and other arms will be procured from the Ordnance Factory Board(OFB) at a cost of Rs 1,125 crores, the survey vessel for the Navy will be constructed at an Indian shipyard.  The cost of the ship will be about Rs 626 crores. 

The number of combat infantry vehicles to be procured through this contract is 110.  At present, the Army has nearly 2,500 such vehicles fitted with machine guns and a short range artillery gun to take on the enemy tanks and their combat vehicles.  The thick armour plate of the vehicle shields the soldiers sitting inside from enemy fire and travel fast on uneven terrain.

The second proposal is a Survey Training Vessel to augment the Navy's growing hydrographic needs in ports, harbours and exclusive economic zones. Indian Navy has been undertaking hydrographic survey for a number of friendly nations in the Indian Ocean and beyond, officials said after the DACmeeting.