Article Posted on : - Jun 24, 2012

NEW DELHI (PTI): The Defence Ministry Saturday cleared several acquisition projects of the armed forces worth over Rs 20,000 crore including regiments of Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missiles (QRSAMs) for the Army.

At a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), IAF's proposals worth over Rs 8500 crore for procuring 14 Dornier aircraft and setting up a communication network were also cleared, sources said here.

They said that after the success of the pilot project of the Air Force Network (AFNET), it will be implemented as a nation-wide network at the cost of Rs 7000 crore.

Proposals of the Navy and the Coast Guard to procure 30 mm guns for their warships were also approved in the meeting presided by Defence Minister A K Antony, they said.

The DAC approved procurement of regiments QRSAMs for the Army Air Defence, of which three will be inducted during the ongoing 12th Defence Plan.

Approval for these missiles comes against the backdrop of former Army Chief General V K Singh's letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he had highlighted that 97 per cent of the equipment with the AAD was obsolete.

The Army will now issue a global tender for the new missiles which will replace the Russian-origin Kvadrat missiles.

In the proposal cleared for procuring 118 30mm guns, 74 guns would be given to the Coast Guard whereas the remaining by the Navy.

The two agencies would get these guns through a global tender and a DPSU has also been designated for coordinating the procurements efforts.

During the meeting, Antony asked the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU) to be ready for competition from the private sector.

"Awarding of contract on nomination be decreased and greater competition will be infused. True, that this is a gradual process but efforts should be made for this. Unless it is very important, nomination should be discouraged," Antony said in the meeting.

The Minister has been insisting that the DPSUs should improve their performance and has favoured more competition between the private and public sector players in the defence sector for creating a robust defence industry in the country.

On the requirements of the army, sources said the Defence Minister would hold a separate review meeting on July 2 with the top army brass to address the shortage of critical equipment and weapon systems faced by the force.

After the former army chief V K Singh had written a letter to the Prime Minister that only four days of tank ammunition was left with the armoured regiments and shortages in other arms, the Defence Ministry had held two meetings to address its needs.

The last two meetings were attended by Gen V K Singh and the July 2 meeting would be attended by incumbent Gen Bikram Singh.