The Indian Navy has formed two task forces to reach out to the local industry to meet all its weapon and other critical requirements in a bid to boost indigenisation in its force under the Make In India initiative, officials said on Wednesday.

The task forces have been formed under the guidance of Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, who is reaching out to the local industries to gather crucial information about their products and also to find ways of how they can build equipment and critical weapons for the maritime force, defence officials told India Today.

The critical requirements of the force are discussed with the industry proactively and the way they can contribute to the requirements of the force, they said. Admiral Tripathi has been pushing to give more role to the local manufacturers and use their capabilities for meeting own requirements.

Admiral Tripathi has also been visiting the local industrial facilities with Navy teams to review their manufacturing facilities. The Indian Navy is leading the indigenisation campaign with all its warships and submarines except for two being built in the Indian shipyards only.

The Navy has plans to place orders worth lakhs of crores for the Indian industry and shipyards in the next few years, according to defence officials. The immediate orders for the indigenous industry would be for Rs 1.6 lakh crore worth of submarines of different types to meet threats posed by China and Pakistan.

The Navy is also going to commission the last of the two warships being built in Russia in the near future with a focus on equipping them with indigenous systems and equipment.

The Tushil and Tamal class warships will be commissioned by February next year after delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, officials said.

The naval force is also promoting Indian vendors in many of the contracts for large platforms and projects and also encouraging shipyards to influence smaller industry in them.