Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will chair his maiden meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council on Saturday during which some significant decisions on procurements would be taken.
Parrikar, who has promised to speed up the acquisition and upgradation process in the armed forces, has asked the Army, Air Force and the Navy to prioritise their demands. On Monday, he held a series of meetings with the top brass in his Ministry and sources said more will be held in the coming days.
Though the agenda of the DAC is yet to be finalised, sources said some key decisions would be taken. This could also include the multi-crore proposal to acquire eight minesweeper vessels from a South Korean firm.
Navy Chief Admiral RK Dhowan had last week said the force level of the minesweeper vessels has gone down and new ones are "required urgently". The deal has been stuck for long because of allegations of involvement of middlemen and the new government had sought an opinion from Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.
He has opined that the tender conditions have been violated. Now with this opinion in hand, the government will take its next course of action soon. After taking over, Parrikar had made it clear that the acquisition process under him would not only be transparent, but also fast.
There was a perception that the defence acquisition under the previous UPA government was slow. Many of the critical projects initiated under the previous regime are still in negotiation stages.
The DAC, set up in 2001 as part of the post-Kargil reforms in defence sector, approves the long-term integrated perspective plan for the forces, accords acceptance of necessity (AON) to begin acquisition proposals, and has to grant its approval to all major deals through all their important phases.
It also has the power to approve any deviations in an acquisition, and recommends all big purchases for approval of the Cabinet committee on security.
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