Govt clears purchase of weapons worth Rs 15,935cr for armed forces

The Defence Ministry on Tuesday cleared a proposal to buy 7.40 lakh assault rifles at a cost of Rs 12,280 crore for the three services, officials said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) presided over by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The defence ministry will also procure light machine guns worth Rs 1,819 crore, they said.

This procurement will meet the operational requirement of the troops deployed on the borders.

In other decisions, a proposal for purchase of 5,719 sniper rifles for the army at a cost of Rs 982 crore was also approved.

A concurrent proposal is being processed for the balance quantity to be procured under the 'Buy and Make (Indian)' categorisation.

In a bid to equip the soldiers on the border with modern and more effective equipment, the DAC has fast tracked procurement of the three main personal weapons, i.e., rifles, carbines and light machine guns in the last one month.

PTI