Budget tracker
First quarter of FY27 produced a ₹52,000-crore DAC round, a ₹30,000-crore UAV tender in evaluation and P-75I at the cabinet doorstep; early July added an Army RFP for 450 Carl Gustaf Mk-IV launchers and a reported ~₹1-lakh-crore three-programme Navy warship pipeline (Projects 15C, 17B, 18A); on 12 August the MoD floated a ~₹1-lakh-crore RFP for 60 multirole transport aircraft to replace the AN-32 fleet, one of India's largest-ever aircraft tenders.
India's FY2026-27 defence budget hit a record ₹7.85 lakh crore, with ₹1.85 lakh crore earmarked for capital acquisition and 75% of that ring-fenced for domestic industry under Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The acquisition cycle is running hot: the DAC cleared roughly ₹52,000 crore of fresh Acceptances of Necessity on 3 July after a record ₹6.73 lakh crore of AoNs in FY26, the ₹70,000-crore Project-75I submarine deal is awaiting Cabinet Committee on Security clearance, and the ₹30,000-crore 87-UAV tender has moved into bid evaluation.
Updated 12 Aug 2026 · updates logged below as they happen
Changelog
MoD issues an RFP to Indian companies — Tata Group, Mahindra, Adani Defence and HAL among them — for 60 multirole transport aircraft in the 18-30-tonne class (with an option clause for more), a tender worth about ₹1 lakh crore (~$10 billion) to replace the IAF's AN-32 fleet; each bidder must partner a foreign OEM and set up a final assembly line plus MRO in India, with roughly 20% of aircraft delivered fly-away, and Tata-Lockheed (C-130J), Mahindra-Embraer (C-390) and a revived HAL-Russia MTA tie-up already in the race.
Indian Navy is reported to be preparing a ~₹1 lakh crore indigenous warship pipeline — four Project 15C destroyers (~₹50,000 crore, RFP expected within a year), six Project 17B stealth frigates (~₹40,000 crore, to be split three each between Mazagon Dock and Garden Reach) and six 14,000-15,000-tonne Project 18A Large Surface Combatants with an RFP expected over the next three years.
Indian Army issues an RFP for 450 made-in-India 84mm Carl Gustaf Mark-IV launchers — max 7 kg, 350-800 m engagement range, deliveries to begin within 12 months of contract — expected to be met from Saab's Jhajjar plant, India's first 100% FDI defence manufacturing project.
DAC chaired by Rajnath Singh accords AoN to proposals worth about ₹52,000 crore — Akash Tarang anti-drone EW, MPATGM, MRSAM, V-SHORADS and kamikaze drones for the Army; mines, shipborne UAS and an electric-propulsion test facility for the Navy; and a fixed-wing high-altitude pseudo satellite for the IAF.
One of six delivered GE F404-IN20 engines for the Tejas Mk1A develops a snag in post-delivery checks; MoD schedules a full programme review for September to fix a realistic delivery timeline.
MoD signs a ₹425-crore Buy (Indian) contract with Bharat Forge for 12 indigenous 1.25 MW marine gas turbine generators for the Indian Navy.
Bidding closes on the IAF's ₹30,000-crore-plus tender for 87 indigenous MALE UAVs with 10 Indian firms — including HAL, Tata Advanced Systems, Adani Defence and L&T — submitting offers.
Finance Ministry clears the ₹70,000-crore Project-75I programme for six AIP submarines to be built by Mazagon Dock with Germany's TKMS, leaving only Cabinet Committee on Security approval before contract signature.
MoD signs a ₹1,950-crore Buy (Indian-IDDM) contract with Bharat Electronics for two DRDO-designed mountain radars for the IAF.
DAC clears proposals worth about ₹2.38 lakh crore with an air-defence tilt — including additional S-400-class long-range systems, an air defence tracked system and Dhanush guns — taking FY26 AoNs to a record ₹6.73 lakh crore.
Union Budget gives the Ministry of Defence an all-time-high ₹7.85 lakh crore for FY2026-27, with ₹1.85 lakh crore for capital acquisition and 75% of that reserved for procurement from domestic industry.
21 tagged stories
The Defence Ministry's RFP for 60 multirole transport aircraft, worth around Rs 1 lakh crore, opens a Make-in-India race between Tata-Lockheed, Mahindra-Embraer and a revived HAL-Russia tie-up to replace the IAF's ageing AN-32 fleet.
Skyroot's Vikram-1 reached a 450 km orbit on its first attempt — making India the third country with private orbital launch capability, and giving New Delhi something it has never had: a second, sovereign road to space.
At the BIMSTEC security chiefs' meeting in Delhi, India's NSA told Myanmar's counterpart plainly that its soil must not host anti-India insurgency, arms smuggling or infiltration — pressure on a neighbour whose ungoverned spaces have become the Northeast's biggest external security problem.
Reported Project 15C, 17B and 18A plans — sixteen hulls including 14,000-15,000-tonne combatants that would be the largest warships ever built in India — would anchor a decade of order books for Mazagon Dock, Garden Reach and other yards.
The Indian Army has issued an RFP for 450 locally built 84mm Carl Gustaf Mark-IV launchers — sub-7 kg, 350-800 m range — with deliveries to begin within 12 months, likely from Saab's Jhajjar plant, India's first 100% FDI defence project.
Pakistan lost 38 security personnel in a week inside its own largest province — and its army's answer, again, was to blame India without producing evidence. The reflex says more about Rawalpindi's unwillingness to face its Balochistan failure than about anything New Delhi has done.
Pakistan's 276th Corps Commanders' Conference pledged 'all measures necessary' to secure the country's share of Indus waters, formally binding the army to a dispute that began when India put the 1960 treaty in abeyance.
Ten domestic firms have bid for the Indian Air Force's 87-UAV programme worth over Rs 30,000 crore — a field wide enough to test whether India's private drone base can absorb, and survive, a contest this large.
A sustainment milestone at Koraput underscores the depth of domestic engine MRO — and renews calls for a dedicated indigenous aero-engine mission before the AL-31FP line winds down.
At 14.5 kg with a 2.5 km reach, the indigenous fire-and-forget MP-ATGM is set for Indian Army induction after ten-plus years of development, closing an infantry anti-tank gap and trimming reliance on imported missiles.
India's Defence Acquisition Council granted Acceptance of Necessity for proposals worth about Rs 52,000 crore on 3 July, a tri-service package weighted toward counter-drone weapons and layered air defence.
A change of command atop the 1.3-million-strong Indian Army hands General Dhiraj Seth the task of turning his 'VIJAY' vision of a technology-driven, future-ready force into decisions, budgets and timelines.
Open-source analysts now count more than 30 J-35s, with output accelerating. In South Asia the figure reads as a countdown: Pakistan signed for the jet in May, and India's own fifth-generation fighter has yet to fly.
The first of eight Chinese-built AIP boats — and reported plans for Pakistan's first Bay of Bengal submarine deployment since 1971 — sharpen an undersea contest that India's delayed P-75I programme has yet to answer.
Construction of the world's largest hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo is moving fast near the Arunachal border. The choices India makes while the concrete is still being poured will shape the Brahmaputra for decades.
The charge sheet against a former DRDO lab chief describes a Pakistani honey-trap that reached classified missile data — forcing decisions on how India vets and watches the scientists holding its most sensitive secrets.
Outgoing Army chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi cites over 1,100 annual India-China military interactions as the Army formally dismisses reports of PLA camps in Upper Subansiri as 'incorrect and without any basis'.
Pakistan says its 29 June border operations killed at least 29 fighters; the Taliban government counts 36 civilian dead — irreconcilable tallies from the heaviest acknowledged cross-border action in a fortnight.
Israel's Rafael is negotiating with multiple Indian private-sector defence firms to manufacture the Iron Dome's Tamir interceptor in India, with output earmarked for Israeli domestic demand and export orders.
A delivered GE F404 engine has developed a snag and another has failed acceptance parameters. With six of 99 engines in hand, India's flagship fighter heads into a September review that will reset its delivery timeline.
INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak and INS Agray joined the fleet together on 21 June — a GRSE production milestone underscoring India's shift from defence buyer to builder as China widens its Indian Ocean footprint.
