The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has approved capital acquisition proposals of various weapons and equipment required by the three armed forces on Tuesday (23 February), the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

Three Acceptance of Necessities (AoNs) for an overall cost of Rs 13,700 crore were accorded.

All these AoNs are in the highest priority category of Defence Acquisition - Buy Indian - IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured).

All these acquisition proposals will be indigenously designed, developed and manufactured. They also include platforms and systems designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The proposals cleared include procurement of 118 Arjun Mark 1A tanks, a much upgraded version of the indigenously-developed Arjun main battle tank (MBT), for the Indian Army.

This development comes nearly three months after Prime Minister Modi rode on an Arjun tank near Rajasthan’s Longewala, and just days after he handed over the first Arjun Mark 1A tank to the Indian Army in Chennai.

The Defence Acquisition Council is the highest decision-making body in the Defence Ministry for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Indian Coast Guard.

It was formed, after the Group of Ministers recommendations on 'Reforming the National Security System', in 2001, post Kargil War in 1999.