Ritika Bhat
26th September 2020
India and Israel presently arrange to expand their sweeping defence association by going into more co-development and co-production ventures on hi-tech weapon systems and exporting them out to other inviting nations. A new subgroup was made to advance such joint ventures under the overextending collaborative working group, headed by the Indian defence secretary and his Israeli partner.
India and Israel presently arrange to expand their sweeping defence association by going into more co-development and co-production ventures on hi-tech weapon systems and exporting them out to other inviting nations. A new subgroup was made to advance such joint ventures under the overextending collaborative working group, headed by the Indian defence secretary and his Israeli partner.
The main agenda of the subgroup working on defence industrial cooperation would be the transfer of technology, technology security, artificial intelligence, innovation, co-development and co-production, and joint export to third countries. Israel has been among the top four arms providers to India for nearly two decades, currently scoring military deals worth around rupees one billion each year.
The subgroup will be headed by Sanjay Jaju, joint secretary of Defense Industrial Production within the Indian defence ministry, and Eyal Calif, Director Asia, and Pacific from the Israeli side, a Hindustan Times report mentioned. This comes at a time when the Indian armed forces are inducting another era of Barak-8 surface to discuss missile frameworks beneath three joint DRDO-Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) projects worth over Rs 30,000 crores.
On 24th September 2020, seven joint ventures were formed between Israeli companies like Rafael advanced Defense systems, IAI, Elbit, and Elta systems with Indian companies. For instance, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Rafael and the Kalyani Group on Thursday. A report published by Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security stated that these undercover military ties were developed after Israel rushed emergency arms supplies to India during the 1999 Kargil strife have extensively come out after the Modi government came to power in 2014.
The Times of India reported that the Indian armed forces have accepted a wide cluster of Israeli weapon framework over a long time, with the parameters from Phalcon AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control Systems) and Herons, Searcher-II and Harop drones to Barak anti-missile defence systems and Spyder quick-reaction anti-aircraft missile system. The accretion also encompasses a host of Israeli missiles and precision-guided munitions like Python and Derby air-to-air missiles, Crystal maze, and spice-2000 bombs. The Spice-2000 penetration bombs had been used by way of Indian mirage-2000s opponents to bomb the JeM facility at Balakot, Pakistan, in February last year.
There are countless different Indian protection deals in the pipeline for Israel. The IAF, for instance, is looking to seal the long-pending over $1.5 billion deal to accumulate two greater 'Phalcon' AWACS or 'eyes in the sky'. It was once reported via Times of India that the Rajnath Singh-led defence council procured additionally decided to fast-track 'project cheetah' to arm the heron drones with laser-guided bombs, air-to-ground anti-tank missiles, and other precision-guided munitions as properly as advanced reconnaissance competencies for around Rs 3,500 crore.
(Source: The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security) Edited by Satvik Pandey