The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) on Thursday approved procurements worth ₹28,000 crore, which includes six additional more capable Air Borne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to be designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
“An earlier proposal to develop two bigger early warning aircraft based on Airbus A330 aircraft has now been converted to six AEW&C platforms mounted on Airbus A320,” a defence source said.
“The A320s, which are already with us, will be converted by Airbus based on the requirements and this will save the overall cost of the project”, the source stated. The project was expected to be completed in six years. These platforms would be much more capable than the existing Netra AWE&C aircraft, offering 360 degree coverage, the source added.
Indigenous push
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting of the DAC that cleared the acquisition proposals worth ₹28,000 crore, of which acquisitions worth ₹27,000 crore would be sourced from the Indian industry, Mr. Singh’s office said on Twitter.
Five cases, valued at ₹25,000 crore are approved under indigenous design, development and manufacture category, another tweet said. “Particularly noteworthy are the DRDO designed and developed AEW&Cs for the IAF and modular bridges for the Army,” it added. Other proposals approved include next generation Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) for the Navy.
The IAF currently operates three Israeli Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) and three smaller indigenous Netra AEW&C systems mounted on Embraer aircraft. A shortage of these force multipliers was felt during the aerial engagement with thee Pakistan Air Force, a day after the Balakot airstrike in February last year. A long- pending proposal to procure two additional Israeli Phalcons was likely to be dropped, another source said.
The Defence Ministry said in statement that this was the first meeting of the DAC since the new Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 came into effect and these were the first set of Acceptance of Necessity (AoNs) accorded, with majority AoNs being accorded in the highest categorization of Buy Indian (IDDM).