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The foreign yards they can team up with for the project are the French Naval Group, German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau, Spain’s Navantia and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company, he said. A joint venture between the Adani Group and state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited was rejected by an empowered committee as it did not meet the eligibility criteria for being shortlisted as a strategic partner, the second official said.

Headed by the defence minister, the DAC is India’s top defence procurement body that evaluates and green-lights acquisition proposals made by the armed forces. The other members of the council are the minister of state for defence, the chief of defence staff, the three service chiefs, the defence secretary, secretary defence research and development, secretary defence production, and director general, acquisition. General Bipin Rawat attended the DAC meeting for the first time as the Chief of Defence Staff. The defence ministry said the DAC approved procurement of equipment worth over ₹5,100 crore from indigenous sources. The military hardware cleared for purchase includes electronic warfare systems for the army. The council also approved “prototype testing” of trawl assemblies, designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, for T-72 and T-90 tanks to boost the army’s indigenous de-mining capability. “Today’s decisions are also in keeping with the mandate given to the CDS and the newly constituted department of military affairs to promote use of indigenous hardware by the services,” the statement added. The ministry’s statement said the SP model sought to promote India as a manufacturing hub for defence equipment and establish an industrial and R&D ecosystem capable of meeting the military’s future requirements. “It’s necessary for the P-75I programme to make concrete contribution to submarine building capacity in India but in a way that also helps us towards indigenisation as has been achieved for nuclear submarines,” said military affairs expert Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande (retd). Apart from next-generation submarines, the SP model covers fighter planes,