Defence ministry clears decks for buying 111 choppers for navy at Rs 217 bn

Also, Rs 8-billion project cleared for eight fast patrol vessels for Coast Guard

The defence ministry on Monday announced it had approved ‘implementation guidelines for the strategic partnership model’.

The ‘strategic partner’ (SP) model of defence procurement, which was promulgated in outline in May 2017, provides a policy framework for 

Indian firms to manufacture specified defence platforms in India based on technology transferred by a selected foreign vendor.

The SP policy initially aims at building four categories of weaponry — fighters, helicopters, submarines, and armoured vehicles. 

But while the policy framework had been drawn up, and retrospectively included as a chapter in the Defence Procurement Procedure of 2016 (DPP 2016), there was a need