New Delhi: The biggest Indo-US defence deal
worth USD 4.1 billion is expected to be cleared by the Cabinet
Committee on Security by the end of this month.
"The CCS will take up the deal for procuring 10 C-17
heavy-lift transport aircraft for discussion in its next
meeting in March and is expected to clear it," Defence
Ministry sources told PTI here.
The Defence Ministry has already approved funds for
procuring the aircraft in this fiscal, they added.
India is planning to procure the aircraft for
augmenting its fleet of Ilyushin-76 aircraft and Antonov-32
transport aircraft from the US through the Foreign Military
Sales route.
The negotiations between India and the US for the deal
were completed in February this year.
After finalising the initial deal for ten aircraft,
the IAF is also planning to place orders for additional six
aircraft.
On the recent Defence Ministry projects cleared by the
CCS, the sources said the proposal to induct at least 16 of
the indigenous Akash surface-to-air missile systems into the
Army and Project Sanjay related to military communication for
the Army were cleared by the highest decision-making body for
security-related matters in the government.
The Akash Missile systems are produced by the Bharat
Dynamics Limited and have been developed by the DRDO.
The IAF has already placed orders for 64 of these
missiles and inducted two of them.
PTI
