The defence ministry signed a 1,700-crore contract with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on Thursday for a fire control system for the navy. This is the latest in a series of deals made in March before the end of the financial year 2022-23.
“The Lynx-U2 system is a control system for naval guns that was made in India. The defense ministry said in a statement that it can accurately track and attack both air and surface targets as well as targets in the middle of a busy sea. It will be put on new offshore patrol ships that Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers and Goa Shipyard Limited will build.
The ministry said that this new order will give BEL 200,000 man-days of work over the next four years.
The news comes a day after the defense ministry signed three contracts worth 5,400 crore for an advanced communication satellite, GSAT 7B, for the army, an automated air defense control and reporting system for the army’s air defense units, and Sarang electronic support measure systems for navy helicopters.
In the last four weeks, the ministry has signed contracts worth more than 21,000 crore for military equipment made in India. This includes Dornier aircraft, medium-power radars, radar warning receivers, and basic trainer aircraft.
India had set aside 84,598 crore, or 68% of the military’s capital acquisition budget for 2022-23, to buy weapons and systems made in India. This was done to make the defense sector more self-sufficient. 75% of the country’s defense capital procurement budget for 2023-2024 will be used to buy military equipment from local manufacturers. This is meant to open up new ways to reach self-reliance goals and boost the country’s defense exports.
India had set aside 64% of the military’s budget for capital purchases in 2021-22 and 58% in 2020-21 for purchases made in India.
This year, about 1 lakh crore has been set aside for domestic procurement, which is more than the 84,598 crore, 70,221 crore, and 51,000 crore that were set aside in the three years before.
In addition to making a separate budget for buying military equipment made in India, the government has taken a number of other steps to encourage self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector. These include increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) from 49% to 74% and letting people know that they can’t import hundreds of weapons and systems.
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