NEW DELHI: Aiming to strengthen the Indian Army’s air defence capabilities through indigenous solutions, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Friday signed a contract worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for the procurement of Air Defence Fire Control Radars under the Buy (Indian–Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category.
The MoD said the contract was signed and exchanged by senior officials of the Ministry and BEL in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh in New Delhi.
As per the MoD, these fire control radars will have a minimum 70% indigenous content and “will be able to detect all forms of airborne threats, including fighter aircraft, attack helicopters and enemy drones.”
This procurement, the MoD said, “marks a significant milestone in the modernisation of the Air Defence Regiments and enhances the Indian Army’s operational readiness, while contributing to the economic growth of the nation.”
The MoD defines the Buy (Indian–IDDM) category as the “procurement of products from an Indian vendor that have been indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with a minimum of 50% Indigenous Content (IC) on cost basis of the total contract value.”
It further added that the move “marks a pivotal step towards empowering indigenous defence industries by encouraging Indian MSMEs through components’ manufacturing and raw material supply.”
In a separate development on Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved an additional corpus of Rs 500 crore to support deep-tech and cutting-edge projects as separate verticals under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme. The information was shared by Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth in a written reply to MP Naveen Jindal in the Lok Sabha.
The process of selection and identification of deep-tech projects has already been initiated.
The MoD said, “Currently, nine projects are launched under this initiative by TDF and nine industries are engaged in four projects sanctioned through DRDO Industry-Academia Centres of Excellence (DIA-CoEs) under the Grants-in-Aid Scheme of DRDO.”
Enumerating the research domains, the Ministry said the projects span areas such as Powder Metallurgy, High Power Microwave Sources and Devices, Advanced Ballistics, Smart and Intelligent Textile Technology, Photonic Technologies, Aerospace Systems and Materials, Micro and Nano Systems Science and Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Quantum Technology, Naval Systems and Naval Technologies, High Power CW Laser Source, Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Materials and Processing, Aero Engine, Desert Warfare Technologies, AI for Information and Wargaming Technologies, Advanced Nano Materials, and Sensors based on Semiconductors.
The TDF scheme is a flagship programme of the Ministry of Defence, executed by DRDO under the 'Make in India' initiative. It provides grants-in-aid to Indian industries for development of defence technologies.
Also on Friday, in another written reply in the Lok Sabha—this time to MP Tejasvi Surya—MoS Defence Sanjay Seth said the Ministry is allocating substantial funds towards research and development for indigenous defence technologies. According to him, over the past three years, DRDO has sanctioned projects worth Rs 29,558.66 crore.