In May 2025, the Indian government quietly activated one of its most powerful tools of military readiness: emergency defence procurement powers. The move cleared ₹40,000 crore for immediate arms purchases, aimed not at long-term modernisation but at immediate, tactical needs.
This is not the kind of procurement that shows up in defence expos or five-year plans. It’s the kind that gets greenlit during a war.
With Operation Sindoor in motion, India’s defence establishment has turned to a mechanism that allows it to buy high-tech weaponry, missiles, drones, and ammunition; and receive delivery within months. It’s fast, focused, and forged in crisis.
So what exactly is this emergency procurement system, and how did it become such a crucial part of India’s military strategy?
What is Emergency Defence Procurement?
Emergency procurement powers are a wartime provision under India’s defence policy. They allow the armed forces to bypass the routine, often lengthy, acquisition process and directly place orders for critical systems. These orders are cleared within weeks, not years, with a binding delivery window typically three to twelve months.
There are financial limits per round, contract thresholds for service vice chiefs, and legal mandates around oversight. But fundamentally, these powers exist to respond to situations where speed is strategy.
The Ministry of Defence allows Letters of Intent (LoIs) to be issued ahead of full contract finalisation, and special clearance mechanisms are used to enable direct negotiations with both Indian and international suppliers. Every deal is tracked by a central committee inside the MoD to ensure transparency and accountability.
A wartime framework born in Uri: The first formal invocation of these powers came in 2016, after the Uri terror attack killed 19 Indian soldiers. At the time, India lacked a protocol for immediate rearming or rapid gear acquisition. Within weeks of the attack, the government approved a new mechanism that allowed the military to make direct purchases.
This wasn’t a one-time move. It became the foundation of a flexible procurement protocol that would be invoked again; each time India found itself needing faster, smarter, and more tactical delivery of weapons and systems.
In 2019, after the Balakot airstrikes, the Indian Air Force used emergency powers to quickly upgrade its missile capabilities and stockpile precision weapons. In 2020, during the standoff with China in Eastern Ladakh, these powers were activated again, this time to procure high-altitude clothing, surveillance drones, and advanced communication systems. A fourth round followed in 2021 to reinforce artillery systems and replenish reserves. The fifth, in 2023, was triggered to counter the rising threat of drone warfare and to make up for global supply chain delays.
Each time, the focus evolved. But the model remained consistent: direct authorisation, short timelines, high oversight, and fast delivery.
Operation Sindoor: What sparked the sixth and largest Round
In May 2025, India cleared ₹40,000 crore in emergency procurement in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor; a high-intensity military operation involving coordinated missile strikes on Pakistani infrastructure. While the government has not shared all tactical details, it’s confirmed that 11 of Pakistan’s 12 airbases were targeted, with Indian forces using BrahMos, Scalp, and Rampage missiles already in their arsenal.
The Heron Mark 2 drones, vital to real-time surveillance and targeting had been procured in earlier rounds of emergency purchases. But the sheer scale and speed of the mission created fresh logistical demands.
The latest emergency orders aim to replenish what’s been deployed and prepare for future contingencies. This time, the shopping list includes AI-guided loitering munitions, kamikaze drones, smart artillery shells, counter-drone radar systems, and next-gen air defence ammunition. It’s a full-spectrum buy spanning all three services and multiple weapons categories.
A system refined for speed and precision: What sets this round apart is not just its scale but its design. The Defence Acquisition Council has mandated that all contracts must be signed within 40 days. Deliveries are expected within a year. Imports are allowed but only with Ministry of Defence clearance. Each service can approve contracts up to ₹300 crore per vendor, and the total cap under current rules is 15% of the defence modernisation budget.
That comes to ₹24,000 crore based on this year’s ₹1.6 lakh crore allocation. But given the scale of Operation Sindoor, the government has shown willingness to stretch beyond the cap possibly using supplementary allocations.
Who’s supplying the hardware?
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is expected to receive fresh orders for 10 low-level radars for drone detection, in addition to six already sanctioned. Solar Defence and Aerospace has been part of strategic consultations with the MoD. Indigenous startups in unmanned systems and AI-based targeting tech are also in the mix.
Unlike previous eras where such deals went exclusively to foreign OEMs, this round is also a signal to India’s domestic defence manufacturers: execution capability now equals contract value.
The Real Shift: from Bureaucracy to battlefield
Emergency defence procurement powers have now matured from a crisis tool into a permanent strategic lever. What began as a response to a terror attack is now a pre-emptive instrument of warfare readiness.
Each round since 2016 has revealed a different aspect of India’s defence posture — from troop gear and surveillance to air superiority and electronic warfare. But the sixth round marks a full convergence of scale, speed, and indigenous supply.
The message is simple. India won’t wait for committee clearances when conflict escalates. It will equip, deploy, and strike with systems that are already paid for, already operationalised, and increasingly, made at home.
This isn’t just about arming the military. It’s about redesigning procurement for the future of war.
