Officials familiar with the development said the government gave its in-principle approval to a slew of indigenous defence projects on Thursday, including light tanks, airborne stand-off jammers, communication equipment, and simulators, as part of a renewed push for self-reliance in the defence sector.

The defence ministry has approved nine such projects, four under the ‘Make-I’ category of the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 and five under the ‘Make-2’ category.

The Make in India project, which aims to enhance indigenous capabilities via the participation of both the public and commercial sectors, is built around the ‘Make’ capital acquisition category. Government-funded projects are referred to as “Make-I,” whereas industry-funded programmes are referred to as “Make-II.”

“The defence ministry has taken a historic move by offering four Make-I projects to Indian industry for design and development. The industry will be given financial assistance to produce prototypes for these projects, according to a statement released by the ministry.

The four projects involve the design and development of light tanks, communication equipment that complies with Indian security norms, an aerial electro-optical pod with a ground-based system, and airborne stand-off jammers.

“This is the first time that Indian industry has been involved in the creation of big-ticket platforms like light tanks and communication equipment with Indian security protocols since the announcement of the industry-friendly DAP-2020,” the ministry stated.

Systems for Apache combat aircraft and Chinook multi-mission choppers, smart wearable equipment for aviation maintenance, independent combat vehicle, and embedded surveillance and aiming system for mechanized forces are among the five projects approved under the industry-funded Make-II procedure.

The ‘Make-II’ category includes projects that entail the prototype creation of military gear or its improvement for import replacement with no government assistance.

“Indigenous development of these projects would assist harness the design skills of the Indian military sector and establish India as a design leader in these technologies,” the ministry continued.

Other sub-category of ‘Make’ is ‘Make-III,’ which encompasses military gear that isn’t conceived or developed in-house but may be built in the nation to reduce imports, with Indian enterprises working with foreign partners to do so.

To boost self-reliance in the defence sector, India set aside 84,598 crore —- 68 per cent of the military’s capital acquisition budget —- for purchasing locally produced weapons and systems in the Union Budget announced on February 1, as well as allocating 25% of the defence R&D budget to private industry, startups, and academia to encourage them to pursue design and development of military platforms.

Last year, India put aside 70,221 crores for domestic defence procurement, or 64 per cent of the military’s capital budget, compared to 51,000 crores, or 58 per cent of the capital budget, in 2020-21.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated last week that personalization and originality of military gear were vital to maintaining the surprise edge over India’s rivals and that this could only be done if weapons and systems were produced in the nation.

India will issue a new list of weapons and systems that cannot be imported shortly. This will be the third positive indigenisation list — the government has already issued two lists prohibiting the entry of 209 weapons and equipment.

Artillery guns, missile destroyers, ship-borne cruise missiles, light combat aircraft, light transport aircraft, long-range land-attack cruise missiles, basic trainer aircraft, multi-barrel rocket launchers, assault rifles, sniper rifles, mini-UAVs, specified types of helicopters, next-generation corvettes, airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) systems, tank engines, and medium-range surface-to-air missile systems are among the items on the list.

The government has signed contracts for 54,000 crores for domestic arms purchase since the first two lists were announced, with agreements totalling 4.5 lakh crore in the process.