A month after Indian Army chief General VK Singh flagged gaps in defence preparedness in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India has empowered its army to buy specialist equipment for its special forces on its own, even as it agreed to consider the army request to have attack helicopters in its aviation fleet as has been demanded by it for several years now.
These decisions were taken at a special review meeting - the third since February 28 - of army's acquisition process and the second since March 12 when the army chief wrote his letter to the prime minister, defence ministry officials said in Delhi.
The defence ministry asked the army to buy the specialist equipment by itself on the lines of what it does for troops posted at the world's highest battlefield in Siachen glacier.
At a nearly two-hour meeting at South Block, Defence Minister AK Antony told the army top brass led by its chief Gen. Singh at the meeting to review its procurements and development plans that it can buy these equipment, the shortage of which was highlighted by the army chief in the letter to the prime minister.