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The Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by the Raksha Mantri, accorded Acceptance of Necessity on 7 September 2026 to capital acquisition proposals worth about Rs 1,10,000 crore across all three services.
About 98% of the approved procurement is to come from Indian industry.
Army approvals cover CBRN Reconnaissance Vehicles, High Mobility Vehicles, Self-Propelled Mechanical Mine Layers, Advanced Light Helicopters, Trawl Tanks and the Sarvatra Bridge System.
The Navy gets Arudhra Radars and the design, development and procurement of indigenous Marine Gas Turbines; the Air Force gets fighter, transport and helicopter capability upgrades plus a Ground-Based Multi-Purpose Jammer and the DEFSAC smart-card access system.
The Ministry of Defence's highest decision-making body on defence procurement; it accords Acceptance of Necessity and decides the acquisition category. Constituted in 2001 on the recommendations of the Group of Ministers that examined the Kargil Review Committee's report.
The R&D wing of the Ministry of Defence and the designer of several systems in this list. Its Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), Bengaluru developed the Arudhra medium power radar, an AESA system with a surveillance radius of about 400 km, produced by Bharat Electronics Limited. Its R&DE (Engineers), Pune developed Sarvatra.
Maker of the Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv, an indigenously developed 5.5-tonne class multi-role helicopter flown by the Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard - the type approved here for the Army and the Air Force.
Sarvatra is a truck-mounted multi-span mobile bridging system developed by DRDO, able to bridge gaps of 15 m to 75 m in 15-metre steps for military traffic, and usable in floods and earthquakes. CBRN defence is protection against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contamination.
Simple Analogy: Sarvatra is a bridge that arrives on trucks and assembles itself.
The procedure governing capital acquisitions, replacing DPP 2016. Its most preferred category is Buy (Indian-IDDM) - Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured - which requires indigenous design and a minimum of 50% indigenous content, raised from 40% under the earlier procedure. The categorisation decided at the AoN stage is what makes a '98% from Indian industry' figure possible.
Released by the Ministry of Defence on 10 February 2026 for stakeholder consultation as the intended successor to DAP 2020, proposing to cut procurement categories from five to four, raise indigenous content to 60%, add technology-readiness-level based acquisition and assure orders for Make and iDEX projects.
Open up items currently imported by DPSUs and the Services to Indian industry for indigenisation.
Key: Launched on 14 August 2020 by the Department of Defence Production during Atmanirbhar Bharat week; Indian firms can pick listed items to design, develop and manufacture, alone or with the original equipment manufacturer.
Bar the import of listed defence items after stated timelines, guaranteeing a domestic market.
Key: Successive lists notified by the Ministry of Defence since 2020 for services and DPSU items; they work with SRIJAN, which offers the wider pool of import-substitution candidates.
Give first preference to platforms designed, developed and manufactured in India.
Key: The top category in DAP 2020's order of preference, requiring indigenous design and at least 50% indigenous content, with Indian-vendor ownership and control conditions attached.
GS Paper 3 > Security > Defence Procurement and Indigenisation
Current Affairs > Defence Acquisitions
General Awareness > Defence
DAC clearances recur several times a year; the procedural questions around AoN and DAP categories are the durable part.
In-principle administrative approval by the DAC for an acquisition proposal, marking the start of the procurement case rather than a contract.
The most preferred DAP 2020 category - indigenously designed, developed and manufactured equipment with at least 50% indigenous content.
Capabilities to detect, identify, monitor and decontaminate chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards.
A DRDO-developed 4D AESA medium power radar built by BEL, with a surveillance radius of about 400 km.