Draft DAP-2026 aims to fast-track defence acquisitions, boost Atmanirbhar Bharat

The proposed draft ‘Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP)-2026’ seeks to ensure categorisation and procurement strategy based on technological availability and manufacturing readiness, and to accelerate the acquisition process, the government said on Tuesday.

The draft DAP-2026 document has been uploaded on the website of the defence ministry, and it seeks comments or suggestions on it from various stakeholders.

“The Department of Defence has prepared the draft ‘Defence Acquisition Procedure-2026’ to propel jointness, atmanirbharta and integration, force modernisation, and speed of acquisition with scaling of production, leading to the growth and development of defence ecosystem in the country,” the ministry said in a statement.

The proposed draft aims to align India’s defence acquisition with the “rapidly evolving geo-strategic landscape”, growth of Indian economy, skilling of human capital, growth of private defence industry in the country and the technological imperatives of modern warfare, it said.

Once approved, it will replace the existing Defence Acquisition Procedure-2020.

The DAP is the cornerstone for the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative in defence, and focuses on institutionalised preference for “Buy Indian-IDDM (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)” category for procurement, thereby boosting domestic manufacturing and effective reduction of imports, the government said.

“The proposed draft will ensure categorisation and procurement strategy based on technological availability and manufacturing readiness, exclusive procedures for faster acquisition of equipment with short technological cycle, spiral designing and procurement of major platforms, exploitation of modern technology, before bulk procurement, pragmatic indigenous content (IC) and indigenous design (ID) content evaluation, and utilisation of indigenous military material, among others,” it said.

The new DAP proposes to “ease financial and experience criteria” for inclusive participation, delegation of decision making for quicker acquisition, revamping of trials and quality assurance processes, aggressive infusion of digitisation and automation in acquisition procedures and processes, ‘Atmanirbharta’ with focus on indigenous designing and retention of IPR, along with incentives for innovations, it added.

“The DAP would boost defence manufacturing and exports along with restriction on import to domestically non-available and critical equipment only,” it said.

The draft DAP-2026 document including the Handbook on Guidelines & Annexures has been uploaded on the website of the ministry.

The ministry seeks comments or suggestions on the draft DAP-2026 from stakeholders through email in pdf or MS Word format within a period of three weeks, i.e. latest by March 3, as per the prescribed format hosted at the website.

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While the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) 2025 deals with maintenance and sustenance of “defence equipment/platforms/systems etc. under the revenue head of expenditure, the DAP deals with the capital procurement of equipment/platforms/systems, etc. under the capital head of expenditure”, the ministry said.

The DAP-2026 intends to “weave the security of the nation and technological growth in a single thread and create the canvas for Viksit Bharat-2047,” it said.