New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence has prepared a draft Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP)-2026 to accelerate force modernisation, promote jointness among the armed forces, and strengthen India’s domestic defence manufacturing ecosystem under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
Once approved, the new procedure will replace the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, which currently governs capital acquisitions for the armed forces. The proposed framework seeks to align India’s defence procurement with the evolving geo-strategic environment, the growing Indian economy, technological advances in modern warfare and the expanding role of the private defence industry.
The ministry said DAP-2026 continues to prioritise the ‘Buy (Indian–IDDM)’ category—Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured—as the preferred mode of procurement to reduce import dependence and boost indigenous production.
According to the draft, the new policy introduces procurement strategies based on technological availability and manufacturing readiness, exclusive procedures for faster acquisition of equipment with short technology cycles, and spiral design and procurement of major platforms. It also emphasises pragmatic evaluation of indigenous content and indigenous design, along with greater utilisation of domestically produced military material.
The proposed DAP further seeks to ease financial and experience criteria to enable wider industry participation, delegate decision-making for faster acquisitions, revamp trial and quality assurance processes, and aggressively introduce digitisation and automation across acquisition procedures. It also focuses on indigenous design, retention of intellectual property rights, and incentives for innovation, while restricting imports to critical equipment not available domestically.
The draft DAP-2026, along with the Handbook on Guidelines and Annexures, has been uploaded on the Ministry of Defence website. The ministry has invited comments and suggestions from stakeholders within three weeks, with submissions due by March 3, 2026.
The ministry clarified that while the Defence Procurement Manual 2025 governs revenue expenditure related to maintenance and sustenance, the Defence Acquisition Procedure deals exclusively with capital procurement of defence equipment and platforms.
The DAP-2026, the ministry said, aims to integrate national security imperatives with technological growth, laying the groundwork for Viksit Bharat 2047.
