NEW DELHI: From French and Israeli-origin missiles to ‘Make in India’ kamikaze drones and counter-drone systems as well as range extension of existing missiles and artillery rockets, the defense ministry on Monday gave the preliminary nod to a slew of military modernization projects worth Rs 79,000 crore. The biggest project to get acceptance of necessity, first step in long-winded procurement process, from the Rajnath Singh-led defense acquisitions council was Rs 30,000 crore purchase of a large number of missiles for Barak-8 medium range surface-to-air missile system, jointly developed with Israel, for IAF and Navy, sources told TOI.These missiles, with an interception range of over 70km, were used as part of the multi-layered air defense network that thwarted the multiple waves of Turkish drones and Chinese missiles fired by Pakistan during the cross-border hostilities in May. The DAC also approved the Rs 1,600-crore lease of two more MQ-9B ‘Predator’ high-altitude long endurance drones, which will add to the existing two being operated by the Navy for long-range surveillance missions, for three years. They will fill the gap till India gets the 31 armed MQ-9B remotely-piloted aircraft systems in 2029-30 under the $3.8 billion deal with the US in Oct last year. Another major project to get the nod was the long-pending over Rs 9,000-crore acquisition of six mid-air refueling aircraft for IAF to extend operational reach of its fighter jets. “Under it, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will modify six second-hand Boeing 767 commercial planes into tankers. A fresh approval was required because the competition resulted in a single vendor situation,” a source said.Two crucial home-grown design and development projects to get the AoN were for range extensions of the Astra Mark-2 air-to-air missiles and Pinaka guided rocket ammunition. The Pinaka multiple launch artillery systems currently fire multi-calibre rockets with a variety of warheads up to ranges of 75 km. “Pinaka’s deep strike lethal capability is now being increased to 120 km. It was tested successfully on Sunday. In the future, it will be extended to 300 km,” a source said.DRDO is already working on enhancing the range of Astra missiles from the existing 100-km to 200-km. “IAF will initially order 600-700 Astra-2 missiles. There will also be a 350-km Astra-3 in the future. Indigenous long range air-to-air missiles are crucial,” another source said. “DAC also approved some additional French Meteor air-to-air missiles (120 to 150-km range) for Rafale fighters as well as Israeli guidance kits for Spice-1000 precision-guided bombs (125-km),” he added.AoN was also agreed for 850 kamikaze drones or loitering munitions for precision strikes for the Army’s new ‘Shaktibaan’ and ‘Divyastra’ artillery batteries for around Rs 2,000 crore. “They will be made in India either by domestic companies or with foreign collaboration,” the source said. The indigenous integrated drone detection & interdiction system Mark-2 (IDD&IS) systems, with 30-kilowatt lasers to disable, degrade or destroy small remotely-piloted aircraft and swarm drones at ranges up to 3.5-km, also got the green light.The overhauls of Mi-17 helicopters in Russia and T-90S main-battle tanks in India were also approved. So was the acquisition of low-level light weight radars, bollard-pull naval tugs, full mission simulators for Tejas jets, automatic take-off landing recording systems for IAF, and high-frequency software defined radios for long-range secure communications.
