Going ahead, India’s effort to construct and retain sovereign management over its army capabilities will prioritise co-development and the retention inside the nation of mental property (IP), supply codes, crucial design knowledge, and the power to improve platforms independently, fairly than merely the native manufacture of foreign-origin tools, in response to a draft coverage doc launched by the federal government late on Tuesday that may govern the procurement of every part from tanks and warships to fighter jets and drones.
“For the following decade, the metric of success is not only ‘Made in India’, however ‘Owned by India’,” stated the Draft Defence Acquisition Process (DAP) 2026, which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched for feedback and recommendations from stakeholders. Describing this as a “doctrinal departure” from what it termed the “preliminary section of ‘indigenisation’”, the draft doc stated the sooner strategy was outlined primarily by switch of know-how (ToT) and localisation of producing — an strategy it famous typically resulted in dependence on legacy methods. It stated the brand new focus would as an alternative be on positioning India as a design powerhouse of the world.
The deadline for stakeholders to submit their observations is March 3, 2026. The DAP governs and lays down the principles and timelines for the procurement of apparatus, platforms and methods beneath the capital head of expenditure. As soon as permitted, it should change the DAP 2020 at present in power.
Renewed push for jointness and ‘atmanirbharta’
Calling the following 10 years “probably the most consequential and decisive decade in unbiased India’s defence historical past”, the draft DAP recognized “Jointness, Atmanirbharta and Innovation (JAI)” because the keystone of presidency coverage for defence preparedness.
Enhancing jointness — the built-in planning, command and execution of army operations throughout land, sea, air, house and cyber domains — among the many Military, Navy and Air Power is a said goal of the federal government. Nonetheless, the much-anticipated theatre instructions are but to materialise, with variations rising among the many providers over how jointness ought to be operationalised.
The draft doc comes 9 months after Operation Sindoor — the Could 7–10 battle with Pakistan — throughout which the providers’ skill to conduct joint operations was examined, most visibly within the area of air defence, the place belongings from all three providers operated collectively to counter Pakistani missile and drone assaults.
The renewed emphasis on innovation and self-reliance, or atmanirbharta, in defence comes within the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s express remarks throughout his Independence Day tackle, by which he stated Operation Sindoor underscored the significance of strategic autonomy and indigenous capabilities — together with Made-in-India weapons — in decisively countering threats. He additionally burdened that nationwide safety can not relaxation on dependence on international sources. Notably, the Prime Minister issued a pointed name to Indian innovators and youth to develop jet engines, a long-standing functionality hole that has constrained the nation’s indigenous defence programmes.
Give attention to quicker induction of drones and AI capabilities
Figuring out the accelerating tempo at which weapons and methods have gotten out of date — fairly than the supply of budgetary assets — as the first problem for defence acquisition within the foreseeable future, the draft introduced the introduction of latest “procurement protocols” for fast-evolving methods involving synthetic intelligence (AI), quantum computing, autonomous platforms and directed vitality weapons (DEWs), in addition to for the upgrading of methods by way of software program.
“The speed of technological change in AI, quantum computing, new know-how drones and DEWs now outpaces the standard 2–3-year acquisition cycle,” the doc acknowledged, including that software program is as crucial to fight functionality as {hardware}. It due to this fact emphasised that upgrades are an equally vital a part of acquisition because the tools itself.
The emphasis on modern and future battlefield applied sciences follows acknowledgements by the Military and the Air Power of the widespread use of AI throughout Operation Sindoor. Specifically, the Military has stated that indigenously developed army software program functions and AI instruments had been extensively used to speed up decision-making and improve battlefield consciousness. The service has additionally been working to improve these capabilities by way of the event of a military-specific massive language mannequin (LLM). The AI instruments deployed by the Military — together with small language fashions — had been developed domestically and educated utilizing knowledge supplied by the service to fulfill its operational and doctrinal necessities.
The emphasis on autonomous platforms, or drones, additionally follows developments throughout Operation Sindoor, which witnessed a number of army firsts within the subcontinent, together with the large-scale use of drone warfare by Pakistan. Pakistani forces employed drone swarms to focus on Indian civilian and army infrastructure. Indian forces, for his or her half, used drones and loitering munitions of their preliminary strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, in addition to within the subsequent neutralisation of Pakistani air defence methods. Operation Sindoor marked the appearance of large-scale kinetic, non-contact warfare within the subcontinent, characterised by fight carried out by way of long-range projectiles fairly than close-range troop engagements.
No less than 670 unmanned aerial automobiles — starting from heavy high-altitude long-endurance drones to vertical take-off methods — are slated to be acquired by the armed forces within the coming years beneath the 15-year defence modernisation roadmap unveiled in September 2025. As well as, as much as 70 radar-evading remotely piloted plane are included within the Military’s necessities beneath the modernisation plan.
Creating civil-military fusion
Acknowledging that the battlefield of the approaching decade will likely be dominated by dual-use applied sciences — outlined as being of civilian origin however adaptable for army use — the doc stated, “The inflexible partitions between ‘civilian’ and ‘army’ specs have crumbled.”
Consequently, it stated it could institutionalise “Civil-Navy Fusion” — built-in civilian and army sectors that share capabilities and innovation.
The doc stated it could enable the providers “to obtain business off-the-shelf (COTS) drone swarms, house applied sciences and cyber-security instruments with minimal fascinating customisation, to allow the conversion of superior civil know-how into army functionality”.
COTS refers to available civilian merchandise that may be employed with minimal modification.
The emphasis on integrating civilian and army sectors comes amid the federal government’s said purpose to construct a “twin manufacturing” pipeline for defence capabilities, together with collaboration between personal corporations and state-owned defence corporations.
Defence acquisition tied to financial progress
The draft additionally states that the procurement of capital-intensive weapons and methods is “now explicitly linked to the nation’s financial engine”, including that it’s going to present the regulatory framework required to drive progress by way of this route. Setting the purpose of aggressively boosting realistically designed and developed Indian tools, it stated this is able to make sure that nationwide spending “recirculates inside the home economic system”, and would nurture a provide chain starting from semiconductors to precision forging.
“On the similar time, the slicing fringe of nationwide defence will likely be maintained by procuring crucial tools by way of international routes, in addition to commencing parallel improvement of home options,” added the draft.
According to MoD coverage, the Union Funds introduced earlier this month earmarked Rs 1.39 trillion — 75 per cent of the capital acquisition part of the full defence outlay — for procurement from home trade in FY27.
In FY21, the MoD determined {that a} substantial share of the modernisation price range could be reserved for capital procurement from home sources, with a portion of this additional put aside for acquisitions from personal Indian trade. For FY26 as properly, greater than Rs 1.11 trillion — once more 75 per cent of the modernisation price range — was earmarked on the Funds Estimates stage for home procurement. The FY27 allocation beneath this head represents a 25.2 per cent enhance over BE FY26.
The doc additionally commits to supporting the nation’s human and industrial capital by matching the wants of the defence forces, facilitating international direct funding, and enabling the infusion of high-end technological ability units by way of international corporations working in India.
An MoD launch late on Tuesday stated the draft DAP 2026 is meant to speed up power modernisation, pace up acquisitions, and allow scaled-up manufacturing, thereby strengthening the nation’s defence ecosystem. The doc additionally locations emphasis on boosting defence exports, whereas lowering dependence on imports. As well as, it proposes easing monetary and experience-related eligibility standards to allow broader trade participation, delegating decision-making to hurry up acquisitions, revamping trial and quality-assurance processes, and introducing substantial digitisation and automation throughout acquisition procedures and processes.
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