Defence equipment: To lease or not to lease, opinion divides govt

Some argue policy will tie the hands of defence ministry bureaucrats; others call it path-breaking

With the Defence Acquisition Policy of 2020 (DAP 2020) introducing “leasing” as a new option for equipment acquisition, senior Ministry of Defence (MoD) officers discussed the pros and cons with defence industry executives at a webinar organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci) on Tuesday.

DAP 2020 defines leasing as a “means to possess and operate [a military] asset without owning the asset” and says it provides a useful way “to substitute huge initial capital outlays with periodical rental payments”.

The only one of the three services that has significant experience of leasing defence equipment is the