New Delhi: During last three financial years (2016-17 to 2018-19), 149 capital acquisition contracts in procurement of defence equipment have been concluded, out of which 58 contracts worth about Rs 1,38,727.16 crores and 91 contracts worth about Rs 76,955.73 crores have been placed on foreign vendors and Indian vendors respectively for the Indian Defence Forces, Rajya Sabha was told on November 25.
The countries from which defence equipment imports are being undertaken include Russia, US, Israel, France and United Kingdom.
There are 41 Ordnance Factories (OFs) and nine Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs) in the Public Sector in India manufacturing defence equipment. In addition, 452 Industrial Licenses (ILs) have been issued to defence industry in private sector for manufacturing of defence equipment, Minister of State (MoS) for Defence, Shripad Yesso Naik said.
The major defence equipment exported during the last three years by India to foreign countries are Patrol Vessels, Helicopters, Sonars and Radars, Avionics, Radar Warning Receivers (RWR), Small Arms, Small Caliber Ammunition, Grenades, Telecommunication equipment, Coastal Surveillance, Simulators, Bullet Proof Jackets (BPJs) and Body Armour.
The details of defence export authorisations for the last three years are as follows:-
Year Value (Rs in crore)
2016-17 1,521
2017-18 4,682
2018-19 10,745
Naval Exercise MILAN 2020 is scheduled to be held at Visakhapatnam in March, 2020 to which 41 countries have been invited.
The Government pursues cooperation initiatives with friendly foreign countries including in Indian Ocean Region (IOR) through structured interactions like Staff Talks and Empowered Steering Group. The areas of cooperation include Capacity Building, Maritime Domain Awareness, Training, Hydrography, Technical Assistance and Operational Exercise.
In reply to another question, Naik said there are 56 ongoing Mission Mode (MM) Projects with a cost of Rs 49,424.54 cr and 218 ongoing Technology Demonstration (TD) mode projects with a cost of Rs 13,427.45 cr.
These projects are directed for 100 per cent indigenous production, though a few projects have collaboration with foreign countries during development phase, the Minister said.
