How India Buys Weapons — DAP 2020 From AoN to Contract, Step by Step

Every capital acquisition in India follows the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020. Understanding it explains why programmes take a decade — and where a vendor can actually influence outcomes.

The categories (in order of preference)

1. Buy (Indian – IDDM) — indigenously designed, developed and manufactured, minimum 50 percent indigenous content.
2. Buy (Indian) — Indian vendor, 50 percent indigenous content (60 percent if not indigenously designed).
3. Buy & Make (Indian) — initial buy from a foreign OEM, then licensed manufacture in India.
4. Buy (Global – Manufacture in India) — foreign vendor who sets up Indian manufacturing.
5. Buy (Global) — outright import; requires justification that nothing above applies.

Plus Make-I (government-funded development, up to 70 percent), Make-II (industry-funded prototypes with assured orders), Make-III (import substitution), the iDEX and Technology Development Fund routes, and Strategic Partnership for submarines, fighters, helicopters and armoured vehicles.

The ten steps

1. Services Qualitative Requirements (SQRs) framed by the user service.
2. Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) — the headline "DAC clears ₹X crore" news.
3. Request for Proposal (RFP) issued to vendors; validity typically 12 months.
4. Technical evaluation of bids by a committee.
5. Field evaluation trials in summer, winter and high-altitude conditions.
6. Staff evaluation and a general staff report.
7. Commercial negotiation with the L1 (lowest compliant) bidder.
8. Competent financial authority approval — Defence Minister up to ₹2,000 crore, Finance Minister up to ₹3,000 crore, Cabinet Committee on Security above that.
9. Contract signature.
10. Delivery, offsets (for Buy Global above ₹2,000 crore) and lifecycle support.

AoN to contract averages three to five years; trials alone commonly take 18 months.

Where programmes stall

• SQRs written around a single product, then challenged by competitors.
• Single-vendor situations after trials, which DAP discourages.
• Cost negotiation with a foreign OEM for licence production.
• Budget: an AoN is not money; the contract needs a line in that year's capital budget.

The 2024-25 revisions

Faster emergency procurement (contracts within six months under delegated powers), higher indigenous content thresholds, a simplified iDEX-to-order pathway, and integrity-pact and offset changes that favour technology transfer over component purchase.

Track live programmes in the procurement tracker.