The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), India's highest body undertaking military procurements for the Indian Armed Forces, has approved the procurement of the Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV). the DAC approved the acquisition of the FICV for the Indian Army under the provision of an ‘Acceptance of Necessity' (AoN) status under the council’s ‘Buy (Indian)' category. The acquisition bid includes a tracked version of the FICV for the Indian Army’s Mechanised Infantry regiments, a press release by the Ministry of Defence stated. The DAC is chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The Indian Army issued a request for information (RFI) in June 2023 seeking the planned procurement of up to 1,750 indigenously developed units of amphibious, tracked FICVs. Notably, this was the third attempt made by the Indian Army since 2008 to replace the Soviet-era BMP-1 and BMP-2 combat vehicles of the infantry. The replacement bid was aimed to modernise the service’s fleet of armoured assets.
Notable features of FICVs under acquisition bid
As per the MoD press release, the acquisition bid for the procurement of FICVs should include a manned turret with future combat systems (FCS) and amphibious capabilities. Furthermore, the FICVs must include fire-and-forget top-attack anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). Pre-requisites by the Ministry of Defence dictate that the FICVs must be inducted with an automatic cannon with a minimum calibre of 30mm, a stabilised remote control weapon station (RCWS) with a 12.7 mm machine gun, and a co-axial machine gun.
As for countermeasures, the FICV must possess active protection and laser warning systems and must have the capacity of carrying up to eleven troops. Indigenous weapons and defence systems developer, Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL), in addition to several private-sector companies such as Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Mahindra Defence Systems, and Tata Motors are engaged in development projects of FICV prototypes for the Indian Army amid the prospect of participating in the bidding process.