Article Posted on : - Jul 25, 2013

NEW DELHI (PTI): Defence Ministry on Wednesday cleared acquisition proposals worth around Rs 4,000 crore for armed forces, including procurement of French-origin Milan 2T anti-tank missiles for the Indian Army to do away with shortage of such weapons in the force.

A meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday also sanctioned an additional Rs 300 crore for Navy's long-delayed Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), under construction at the Cochin Shipyard Limited, sources told PTI here.

For the Indian Air Force, the DAC approved procurement of two more Aerostat radars worth over Rs 1,000 crore for keeping an eye on the enemy activities deep inside its territory, they said.

The Milan 2T missiles are built in India under licence from French firm MBDA by the Hyderabad-based PSU Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and more than 4,500 more of it would be built by it after today's approval, they said.

The Army has been facing shortage of anti-tank weaponry for quite some time and it has been conveyed to the Government on several occasions by its leadership, they said.

The DAC meeting also cleared an IAF proposal for upgrading the medium lift choppers of the force including older versions of Mi-17 helicopters.

IAF has been operating these choppers for quite some time and the machines which still have age left in them would be upgraded at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crore for making them more capable including enabling them to carry out night operations.

IAF proposal for installing auto-pilot equipment in its Jaguar deep strike penetration aircraft was also approved by the DAC.