India's Defence Acquisition Council Cleared About ₹2.12 Lakh Crore of Drones, Helicopters, Air Defence and Guns for All Three Services on 26 October 2026, With About 82 Per Cent of the Procurement Meant for Indian Industry

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the Defence Ministry’s top body for approving capital purchases for the armed forces, gave Acceptance of Necessity on 26 October 2026 to proposals with an estimated cost of about ₹2,12,000 crore (₹2.12 lakh crore), according to a Press Information Bureau release posted at 4.21 pm that day. The Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, chaired the meeting. The release says about 82 per cent of the procurements across these approvals will be made from Indian industry.

Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) is in-principle administrative approval. It lets a proposal move on to the next stages of buying and is not a contract. This article follows the ministry release and says so wherever a press report adds a detail the release does not carry. All figures are as of 5 November 2026.

The Army list: ten items, led by drones and air defence

The release names ten Army items: High Mobility Vehicles, a Self-Propelled Tracked Gun System, a Gun Shot Response System, Light Multi Role Helicopters, a Very Short-Range Air Defence System (VSHORADS), a Platform Based Counter Unmanned Aerial System, an Unmanned Aerial System called Brick Long Range, a Surveillance UAV, an Integrated Surveillance and Strike System and a Long Range Kamikaze Drone System.

The ministry gives each a one-line purpose. The vehicles are meant to improve mobility and logistics in difficult terrain. The tracked gun system is meant to give mechanised formations matching mobility and firepower. The Gun Shot Response System is described as a force multiplier that provides real-time situational awareness of the forces. VSHORADS is meant to engage new-generation, small aerial threats, and the counter-drone system is meant to improve the survival of tanks on the modern battlefield. The surveillance and drone systems are meant to sharpen the Army’s surveillance and targeting.

The release does not describe the Brick system, give quantities or put a price on any single item. The Tribune notes that the Army already operates the K9 Vajra, a gun that moves on tank-style tracks.

Decoys for ships, a weather radar for forward airfields

For the Navy, the release lists an Active Offboard Decoy System and “other major Naval platforms” that will be indigenously designed and constructed. The decoy is meant to make anti-missile defence more credible against modern anti-ship missiles. Indian Masterminds explains that such a system creates a false target to draw a missile away from the ship, and adds that it works alongside a ship’s other defences and does not guarantee protection against every missile. The Tribune reports that the naval platforms include a next-generation destroyer of more than 10,000 tonnes. The ministry release does not name the ship.

For the Air Force, the release lists helicopters, air defence systems, weapons and a Mobile X-Band Doppler Weather Radar System. The radar is meant to give high-resolution, localised weather surveillance in forward areas. The release says Special Utility Helicopters will meet the Air Force’s important air transport requirements and gives no number or model. ANI, citing officials, reports that the Air Force plans 24 of them for VVIP transport at about ₹10,000 crore, replacing the Mi-17 V5 helicopters now used for the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister.

Light helicopters, the one item the press has priced

The release says the Light Multi Role Helicopters will serve both the Army and the Air Force for reconnaissance and surveillance, combat, rescue of troops, and humanitarian and disaster relief. ANI reported on 27 October that defence officials put the cleared proposal at 200 helicopters and about ₹20,000 crore, to be built in India with Indian companies in the lead. India TV carried the same text.

ANI says the two services need about 400 light helicopters to replace their Cheetah and Chetak fleets, which are being retired over the coming years, so the cleared 200 are about half of that need. It reports that the Army will issue a tender in which Indian firms, including Tata and Adani, would tie up with global manufacturers, and that the contract is expected to be shared between the two leading bidders. Tata with Airbus, Adani with Leonardo and Bell Helicopters of the United States are named as likely players. ANI adds that India chose the Russian Ka-226 as the replacement in 2014 but the programme did not move forward.

The opened reports do not agree on the machine. ANI’s text moves between the cleared multirole helicopters and the Light Utility Helicopter that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has developed, of which it says 12 are built and orders for 187 more are in the pipeline. The Tribune’s sources describe the new helicopter as twin-engined. The ministry release names no builder, so this article does not say who will make it.

The drone and counter-drone thread through 2025 and 2026

The October list continues a pattern in the ministry’s own releases. On 29 December 2025 the council cleared about ₹79,000 crore of proposals that included a Loiter Munition System for artillery regiments and an Integrated Drone Detection and Interdiction System Mk-II for the Army, according to the Year End Review 2025. On 3 July 2026 it cleared about ₹52,000 crore, including an anti-drone electronic warfare system named Akash Tarang, a VSHORADS with multi-spectral sensing, an active protection system for tanks and a jet-based kamikaze drone system, according to that day’s release. Loitering munitions are already reaching the Army, as the Nagastra-1R delivery reported in October 2026 shows.

Where the 82 per cent and the ₹2.12 lakh crore sit

The release does not convert 82 per cent into rupees or say which procurement categories, such as Buy (Indian) or Buy (Indian-IDDM), the items fall under. On the ministry’s own two figures, 82 per cent of about ₹2.12 lakh crore comes to roughly ₹1.74 lakh crore, a tuput calculation and not a ministry number.

For scale, the council’s release of 27 March 2026 records AoN for proposals worth about ₹2.38 lakh crore, including the S-400 long-range missile system and Medium Transport Aircraft for the Air Force. The same release says that in 2025-26 the DAC granted AoN for 55 proposals worth ₹6.73 lakh crore and the ministry signed capital procurement contracts for 503 proposals worth ₹2.28 lakh crore, and that both figures were the highest in any financial year. A ministry release of 17 June 2026 puts the 2026-27 defence budget at ₹7.85 lakh crore and indigenous defence production in 2025-26 at ₹1.78 lakh crore. India’s defence industry has moved from importer to maker, and defence exports reached a record ₹38,424 crore in 2025-26.

What happens after an approval

The Tribune describes AoN as the first step, followed by requests for proposals, trials and contract negotiations before final contracts are signed. The ministry’s own releases show how long that can take. On 6 June 2022 the council granted AoN for Next Generation Corvettes at about ₹36,000 crore, and on 2 November 2026 the ministry signed ₹53,866.50 crore of contracts with two state-owned shipyards for eight of them, as the corvette contracts article sets out.

The 2025-26 totals above cover different sets of proposals, since 55 approvals and 503 contracts are not the same list. As of 5 November 2026, none of the sources opened reports a request for proposals, tender or contract for any item cleared on 26 October, and the ministry release gives no delivery dates.