India working to cut arms-buying timeline

A high-powered defence ministry committee, steering a comprehensive review of India’s arms-buying rules, is looking at shortening actual acquisition timelines from the current seven-eight years to under two years for speedy modernisation of the armed forces, people tracking the matter said on Wednesday.

- Rahul Singh

The panel, headed by director general (acquisition), has identified three key areas that account for delays in the procurement of critical weapons and systems, including preparation of the request for proposal (REP), field evaluation trials and contract negotiations, the people said, asking not to be named.

The review of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 was ordered by the defence ministry in June and is expected to be concluded by December, HT learns.

“The two-year timeline is prescribed in the DAP but most acquisitions tend to be prolonged, sometimes taking seven to eight years instead of two. The Rafale M deal was closed in less than two years, and that’s how all acquisition should progress. The review is to ensure that self-imposed deadlines are met,” said one of the persons cited above.