The Defence Ministry will put before the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, a proposal to substantially compress the timelines for procurement of defence equipment. The move is designed to streamline the existing process so that the defense capabilities of the country are not affected by administrative delays.
Currently, the average time for defence acquisition is 96 weeks (two years), but the ministry intends to cut this down to 24 weeks (six months). According to multiple senior officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Ministry plans to overhaul the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) manual, which spans 657 pages. The objective is to streamline the process and minimize delay in the procurement of key defence platforms. DAP was overhauled as recently as in 2020, but aspects such as procuring Rafale fighter jets, Scorpene-class submarines, and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles pointed to delays within the system.
Simplifying Procedures and Timelines
The proposal laid before the DAC seeks to include stringent timelines for major phases such as the Request for Proposals (RFP), Field Evaluation Trials, and Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC). As per the new system, the whole acquisition procedure should be concluded within six months. Officials are pushing for the RFP to be drawn up while the military pursue Acceptance of Necessity (AON) for a specific platform, a departure from the earlier process, where the RFP was only started after AON approval.
Field Evaluation Trials, traditionally a years-long exercise as the armed forces experimented with equipment under the most inhospitable environments like polar fronts and deserts, will similarly be accelerated. Now that technology to simulate environments exists, the Ministry desires the trials to run parallelly with simulated conditions, quickening the pace.
Elimination of Delays in Contract Negotiation
The last phase, with CNC, led by top officials of the Ministry, will likewise be limited to a six-month duration. Supplier negotiations will be more targeted and quicker, shortening delays in contract finalization. Once the contract price is cleared by the finance ministry, the issue will then move to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by the Prime Minister.
Ensuring Accountability and Faster Decisions
Through compressing the timeframes for the capital procurement process, the Defence Ministry hopes to stimulate faster decision-making, particularly in acquiring cutting-edge platforms. The Ministry wishes to hold accountable both the military and itself in case of an increase in price resulting from delay in procurement.
