New Delhi: India today approved the procurement of next generation long range maritime mobile coastal batteries that would use the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to deliver warhead on inimical forces. The Indian Navy would operate the missile batteries.

The decision came at the Defence Acquisition Council meet, the first under Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who had taken over in early June this year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power in the May elections with an improved majority in parliament.

The defence panel also approved the acquisition of indigenous Software Defined Radios (SDR) for tactical communication purposes of the armed forces.

The decision on Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries (Long Range) for the Indian Navy is another feather in the cap of the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.

Along with the nod for the SDRs, the two decisions will give a boost to indigenisation efforts of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Weapons Electronics System Engineering Establishment (WESEE) , apart from defence public sector undertakings such as Bharat Electronics Limited.

The SDR is a complex and state of art communication system, which would enable information sharing, collaboration and situational awareness through high-speed data and secure voice communication with anti-jamming capability, a Ministry of Defence statement here said.

Next-Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Batteries (NGMMCB, Long Range) would be fitted with supersonic BrahMos surface-to-surface cruise missiles and would be deployed along the coast.

Both this indigenously developed equipment are of the latest generation and would give a fillip to the ‘Make-in-India’ initiatives of the Modi government.

Continuing its focus on ‘Ease of business’ in military sector, the DAC also approved amendments to the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016. The amendments are designed to simplify processes under the ‘Make’ category as well as ‘Offsets. Further details of the amendments were not shared immediately.