Defence Acquisition Council clears Rs 52,000 crore in capital acquisition proposals

The Defence Acquisition Council approved capital acquisition proposals worth about Rs 52,000 crore on Friday, July 3, clearing a slate of Army, Navy and Air Force programmes at a meeting chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi.

The council accorded Acceptance of Necessity to each proposal, the in principle administrative approval that opens the Ministry of Defence capital procurement cycle. Values at this stage remain estimates.

The Defence Minister said the cleared proposals would be "of immense help in enhancing combat readiness" of the defence forces, in a post on X soon after the meeting. The official release puts the Army in front with six named clearances, the largest single service share of the day.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the approvals on X

What the Defence Acquisition Council cleared for the Army

The Army list runs six items: the AKASH TARANG anti unmanned aerial vehicle electronic warfare system, Man Portable Anti Tank Guided Missile systems, the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile weapon system, Very Short Range Air Defence Systems, an Active Protection System for tanks and a Jet Based Kamikaze Drone System.

AKASH TARANG is the new name on the list. The release says the system will give Army formations effective protection against unmanned aerial vehicles, and offers nothing further. The designation had not figured in public defence documents before Friday, and it is distinct from Akashteer, the air defence control and reporting network the Army fielded to effect during Operation Sindoor.

The Active Protection System is meant to improve the defence mechanism of tanks and raise their survivability, the ministry said. Armour protection against top attack munitions and loitering drones has climbed the Army's priority list since the Ukraine war put tank losses on public display.

MRSAM arrives with an Operation Sindoor record

Of the systems cleared this week, the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile is the known quantity. Jointly developed by DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries, the 70 km class system serves with all three services, and the ministry describes the fresh procurement as medium range air defence against a variety of stand off aerial threats.

MRSAM formed the third layer of the air defence grid that met Pakistani drone and missile waves in May 2025. An interception over Sirsa, credited by an Air Force officer with stopping a Pakistani ballistic missile headed for Delhi, remains its best known engagement from the operation, whose commanders received the Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal at last week's Defence Investiture Ceremony.

The Air Force inducted its first MRSAM squadron at Jaisalmer in 2021, where the Defence Minister called the system a game changer. The naval variant sails on frontline destroyers, and the Army has been raising regiments of its own version since deliveries began.

Drone war lessons run through the smaller systems

The V-SHORADS clearance covers systems with multi spectral sensing, which the ministry says will improve countermeasure resilience. The release names no vendor and no model. The Army's very short range layer still leans on Igla family missiles bought across emergency procurement rounds, while DRDO trials its own laser beam riding VSHORADS separately.

Jet based kamikaze drones round out the Army list. The ministry says the system brings electronic warfare capability with greater lethality and survivability while staying cost effective. Loitering munitions earned their place in Indian planning during Operation Sindoor, though the Army's recent kamikaze drone purchases have drawn scrutiny after SMPP's Agniveg delivery ran into an indigeneity challenge.

MPATGM heads for the infantry

The Man Portable Anti Tank Guided Missile is a DRDO development, and the ministry says it will lift the infantry's ability to counter mechanised threats. News agency ANI had reported ahead of the meeting that the proposal covered about 100 launchers, 2,300 missiles and five simulators worth over Rs 2,600 crore, with Bharat Dynamics Limited as production agency. The official release gives no numbers.

Guided missile order books are filling elsewhere too. Bharat Dynamics took a Rs 1,348 crore HAL order for Helina launchers in June.

Navy takes mines and a test facility, Air Force takes pseudo satellites

For the Navy the Defence Acquisition Council cleared the Multi Influence Ground Mine, a Naval Shipborne Unmanned Aerial System and a Land Based Testing Facility for electric propulsion. The ministry says the mine will deny freedom of manoeuvre to the adversary, the shipborne drones will lift the fleet's situational awareness, and the facility will test motors and propulsion systems for naval platforms.

The Air Force item named in the release is the Fixed Wing Based High Altitude Pseudo Satellite, tasked with persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, telecommunication and remote sensing. Aircraft of this class fly on solar power in the stratosphere for days at a stretch, holding station where satellites pass only in windows.

The release lists the remaining Air Force clearances only as other proposals, without naming them. Several programmes reported in advance of the meeting, including a Make in India order for HAMMER precision guided munitions, found no mention in the official statement.