DAC nod to buy 73,000 US SiG Sauer rifles for Rs 780 crore

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, CDS Gen Bipin Rawat and the chiefs of the Army, Air Force and Navy on Monday. (ANI)

Besides approving the new Defence Acquisition Procedure to replace the Defence Procurement Policy of 2016, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on Monday also approved buying another cache of nearly 73,000 American SiG Sauer assault rifles for Rs 780 crore.

The total procurement approved by the DAC on Monday is worth Rs 2,290 crore.

This is the second time in as many years that the government has bought almost as many SiG Sauer 716 assault rifles to plug the shortfall of such weapons in the Army. In February last year, India had bought 72,400 SiG Sauer 7.62×51 mm calibre guns for Rs 647 crore.

The government mentioned that the rifles have been bought “to equip the Frontline Troops of the Army”. It comes at a time when India and China are involved in a military standoff in eastern Ladakh for nearly five months now.

Buying almost 1.5 lakh of these guns over two years comes even as a Make in India project to manufacture more than 6.5 lakh AK-203 rifles at the Korwa ordnance factory in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, has failed to take off. The project is a joint venture with Russian Roson-boronexport (ROE) and Kalashnikov.

The deal has been stuck over price negotiations.

The DAC also approved capital acquisition under the Buy India (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category to procure Static HF Trans-receiver sets and Smart Anti-Airfield Wea-pon (SAAW).

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.