Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday that the cabinet approved the sale of Akash missile system to foreign nations.
Rajnath Singh, in a series of tweets, said that the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the export of Akash Missile System and a Committee for faster approvals has been created.
"Under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat, India is growing in its capabilities of manufacturing a wide variety of Defence platforms and missiles," he tweeted.
Noting that till now Indian defence exports included parts or components for defence equipment, he said: "The export of big platforms was minimal. This decision by the Cabinet would help the country to improve its defence products and make them globally competitive."
Akash is a Surface to Air Missile with a range of 25 Kms. The missile was inducted in 2014 in IAF and in 2015 in the Indian Army.
"After its induction in the Services, interest is shown in Akash missile by many friendly countries during International Exhibitions/Def Expo/Aero India. The Cabinet approval will facilitate Indian manufactures to participate in RFI/RFP issued by various countries," The Defence Ministry, in a statement, said.
The export version of Akash will be different from the System currently deployed with Indian Armed Forces
India aims to achieve exporting defence equipment worth Rs 35,000 crore ($5 billion) by 2025, as per the Defence Production Export Promotion Policy 2020.
Aimed at enhancing exports and build a domestic defence industry for self reliance, the policy targets a turnover of Rs 1,75,000 crore ($25 billion).
The policy also looks at doubling domestic procurement from the Indian industry.
The share of domestic procurement in overall defence procurement is about 60 percent. In order to enhance procurement from domestic industry, it is incumbent that procurement is doubled from the current Rs 70,000 crore to Rs 1,40,000 crore by 2025.
(With IANS inputs)
