India, Feb. 1 -- The Centre on Saturday set aside more than Rs.6.8 lakh crore for the defence sector in the Union Budget for FY2025-26, including Rs.1.8 lakh crore for the modernisation of the military, whose shopping list includes new fighter jets, helicopters, warships, submarines, tanks, artillery guns, drones, and rockets and missiles.

A chunk of the outlay has been allocated for buying weapons, systems and equipment from domestic suppliers to achieve the self-reliance goal.

The year's allocation is almost 9% higher than what it was in the budget estimates ( Rs.6.22 lakh crore) for financial year 2024-25, and nearly 6% more than last year's revised estimates ( Rs.6.41 lakh crore), budget documents showed.

The allocation this year i...