New Delhi: The Ministry of Defense on Thursday gave three major acquisition projects and the initial node to seven small people, collectively at a price of more than Rs 1 lakh crore, from special espionage aircraft and advanced minswipes to quick-reaction air defense missiles and underwater autonomous ships.The largest project for obtaining “acceptance of requirement” (AON), which is just the first step in the long-horn procurement process, was for the indigenous construction of 12 mine countermessor ships for about Rs 44,000 crore, which would take almost a decade, sources told TOI.These special warships, with displacement of every 900–1,000 tonnes, will be able to locate, track and destroy underwater mines kept by enemy forces, which disrupt shipping and marine trade, to choke the ports and ports. Qrsams designed to interrupt hostile fighters These special warships are important amidst the expansion of maritime cooperation between China and Pakistan. Currently, the Navy performs with the “clip-on mine countermessor suit” installed on some vessels to plug the major capacity difference.The second major project was a procurement of Rs 36,000 crore of the new quick-response surface-to-hwa missile (QRSAM) system developed by DRDO, with three regiments for the army and three squadrons for IAF. Overall, Army Air Defense has estimated the requirement of 11 such regiments. These high mobile Qrsam designed to prevent hostile fighters, helicopters and drones in the range of 30 km will add to the multi-level air defense networks of the country, which played an important role in thwarting several 7-10 waves during operation to thwart Turkish-Mool drones and Chinese missiles.The third major project was for three ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) aircraft, designed to identify and help enemy goals of high value on the ground with greater accuracy and accurate by fighter jets and missiles for about Rs 10,000 crore.These aircraft will be equipped with a wide range of indigenous sensors and systems developed by DRDOs such as synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical and infrared sensors to collect “Actionbal Intelligence” in real-time on enemy infrastructure, build-ups and movements.Another project was given for semi-vegetarian autonomous ships for Aon ISR missions. They will be acquired under the ‘Make-II’ category project, where the prototype is funded by the development industry. The AON was integrated for better supply chain management for the purchase of armored recovery vehicles, electronic warfare systems and tri-service integrated Common Integrated Common Investigation Management System.
