Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh has stated that India has to increase its production capacity for military-grade drones, highlighting the importance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in contemporary combat. He stated that the government will develop a new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2025) in six months and that the Center intends to reduce the defense procurement cycle to no more than two years. He claimed that since many of the technologies may not be available domestically, some technology transfer is necessary for the nation to produce military-grade drones.
In terms of military-grade drones, I would say that we are looking at at least three or four firms who are developing this kind of capability. In order to get them to start spending even more in this field—including partnering with several external technologies—we will support them through orders and tenders, he stated. The Defense Secretary stated that he hopes to see a scenario in which no procurement, no matter how complicated, takes more than two years. “We have to simplify it. Many unnecessary stages can be omitted. Many tasks can be completed simultaneously instead of one after the other. Additionally, there has been a lot of simplification about the kind of businesses that are eligible to bid; we have eliminated certain needless conditionalities,” he stated.
