NEW DELHI: In a major move to boost national defense manufacturing, the government on Wednesday approved the export of nationally developed ground-to-air. Akash missile system and create a high-level committee to authorize the sale of the main platforms to various countries.
The defense ministry said that a committee made up of the defense minister Rajnath singh, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, S Jaishankar, and the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, have been created to authorize exports from the main indigenous platforms.
The decision to export the missile systems was made at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Akash Missile systems have more than 96% indigenous components and the weapon can hit targets at a distance of 25 km.
The ministry said that many “friendly countries” have shown interest in acquiring the missile during international exhibitions such as ‘DefExpo’ and ‘Aero India’.
Singh said the export version of the Akash missiles would be different from the system currently deployed with the Indian armed forces.
“Under #AtmaNirbharBharat, India is growing in its capacity to manufacture a wide variety of missile and defense platforms. The cabinet chaired by Prime Minister @narendramodi ji today approved the export of the Akash missile system and a committee has been created to faster approvals. ” Singh tweeted.
He said that India’s defense exports so far included parts and components.
“The export of large platforms was minimal. This Cabinet decision would help the country to improve its defense products and make them competitive globally,” said the defense minister.
The ministry said cabinet approval will make it easier for Indian manufacturers to participate in the bidding process (Request for Information and Request for Proposal) from various countries.
“Besides Akash, there is interest in (for) other important platforms such as the coastal surveillance system, radars and aerial platforms. To provide faster approvals for the export of such platforms, a committee made up of Raksha Mantri, the Minister of Foreign affairs and national security adviser has been created, “he said in a statement.
“This committee would authorize subsequent exports of major indigenous platforms to various countries. The committee would also explore various available options, including the government-to-government route,” he added.
Singh said the government intends to focus on exporting high-value defense platforms with the goal of achieving a goal of $ 5 billion in defense exports and improving strategic relations with friendly foreign countries.
The government has focused primarily on boosting national defense production and set a revenue target of Rs 1.75 million ($ 25 billion) on defense manufacturing by 2025.
According to estimates, the Indian armed forces are expected to spend around $ 130 billion on capital acquisitions over the next five years.
In May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman implemented a series of reform measures for the defense sector, including making a separate budget outlay to purchase Indian-made military equipment, raising the FDI cap from 49% to 74% in the automatic route and the generation of a year -in a negative sense list of weapons that will not be imported
In August, Singh announced that India will halt the import of 101 weapons and military platforms such as transport jets, light combat helicopters, conventional submarines, cruise missiles and sonar systems by 2024.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Defense published the first list of articles, with a detailed schedule, whose import will not be allowed. The decision was aimed at promoting the national defense industry.
In a related development, the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) identified 108 military systems and subsystems such as navigation radars, tank carriers and missile boats for the national industry to design, develop and manufacture.
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