Expressing concerns over the obsolete weapons used by soldiers in the counter insurgency operations, government on Wednesday gave its approval for various procurement proposals of the three Services and Coast Guard, estimated to cost about Rs. 9,435 crore. The procurement proposals include 41,000 Light Machine Guns (LMG) and over 3.5 lakh Close Quarter Battle (CQB) carbines. The decision will provide a major fillip to the combat capability of the soldiers, according to the ministry officials.
The armed forces have been battling hard to replace vintage weapons, but several deals related to primary infantry weapons have been repeatedly cancelled in the past.
“The vintage of personal weapons, assault rifles, carbines and LMGs being operated by the troops of the three Services, especially by soldiers positioned on the borders and in areas affected by militancy has been a cause of concern for over a decade…With the approval of these two proposals, the government has cleared procurement of the entire range of personal weapons for the three Services,” the ministry said in a statement after the meeting of Defence Acquisition Council(DAC), the highest body in the military purchases in the ministry.
The DAC, headed by Nirmala Sitharaman, maintained that these small arms would be procured under the Buy and Make (Indian) category and of the total quantities envisaged, 75 per cent will be through Indian industry under ‘Buy and Make (Indian)’ category, and the remaining, through Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). The cost of carbines and LMGs is Rs. 4,607 crore and Rs. 3,000 crore respectively.
The ministry claimed that the reservation for the OFB has been kept to optimally utilise their infrastructure and capacity, as well as provide a window for assimilation of critical technologies towards building indigenous capability in small arms manufacturing.
The DAC also approved the procurement of essential quantity of High Capacity Radio Relay (HCRR) for the Army and Air Force at a cost of over Rs 1092 crore. The Coast Guard will get two Pollution Control Vessels (PCV) at an approximate cost of Rs 673 crore.
The ministry further stated that the HCRRs would provide fail-safe and reliable communication along with increased bandwidth in the Tactical Battle Area. These ships, in addition to carrying out pollution control, would also be capable of undertaking patrolling, search and rescue and limited salvage and fire fighting operations at sea.
Fast tracking the process of acquisition for combat soldiers, DAC has given its go ahead to series of small arms procurement in the last two months, including procurement of 7.4 lakh assault rifles from both OFB and private industry at an estimated cost of Rs 12,280 crore.
Besides assault rifles, 5,917 sniper rifles for the Army and Indian Air Force at a cost of about Rs 982 crore, 17,000 Light Machine Guns (LMG) for the three Services at an estimated cost of over Rs 1,819 crore, and another proposal for72,400 assault rifles and 93,895 Close Quarter Battle (CQB) Carbines at a combined cost of Rs. 3,547 crore were also approved by the government.
