IAI and India ink $93 million deal for additional missile deliveries
The medium range surface-to-air missiles will protect India from enemy aircrafts.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMUpdated: FEBRUARY 1, 2019 02:51 IAI's MRSAM missle during a test in June 2016(photo credit: ISRAEL AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES)
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has signed agreements worth $93 million to provide India with naval MRSAM (Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile) systems, the defense giant has announced.Under the contracts, which were signed with the Indian Navy and Cochin Shipyard Limited, IAI will provide complementary systems for the system. They involve follow-up orders for a range of maintenance and other services for various sub-systems of IAI’s advanced MRSAM.The MRSAM system is jointly developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization in close collaboration with IAI’s Elta, Rafael and additional companies in both countries. It is used by Israel’s navy as well as by India’s naval, air and ground forces.Able to shoot down enemy aircraft at a range of 50-70 km., it will help to protect India from enemy aircraft and will replace the country’s aging air defense systems.Each MRSAM system includes several state-of-the-art systems such as digital radar, a command and control system, tracking radar, interceptors with advanced homing seekers and mobile launcher systems.The missiles, which can be fired in single- or ripple-firing modes from a vertical position, are launched in canister configuration; a launcher has eight canisterized missiles in two stacks. The system also features an advanced radio frequency (RF) seeker and can determine if the identified target belongs to a friend or an enemy.Last week, India successfully tested the Barak 8 from the naval warship INS Chennai against an incoming aerial target flying at a low altitude. The test, which assessed the potential collaboration between ships for the first time, took place off the coast of Odisha in eastern India and saw the Barak 8 LRSAM destroy the incoming target with a direct hit.“The interception scenario, which was executed successfully, demonstrated how the operational force of the defense system can be doubled regionally, rather than topically,” the company said in a statement.“The follow-up orders provide additional evidence of the satisfaction and trust of our Indian partners in respect to the MRSAM family,” said Boaz Levi, executive vice president and general manager of IAI’s Systems, Missiles & Space Group, adding that the test of the system “demonstrated the advanced technological capabilities of the air-defense system as well as our collaboration between IAI, its partners in India’s navy, the local Indian industry and our colleagues at IAI’s ELTA and Rafael. This is a badge of honor for the entire Israeli industry.”Israel has been supplying India with various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in recent years, making the Asian giant one of Israel’s largest buyer of military hardware with annual sales worth over $1 billion.The Times of India reported that New Delhi is likely to approve a $800 million deal with IAI to acquire two additional Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft from Israel. According to the report, the second deal with IAI to acquire the system is currently being studied by the Finance Ministry after being approved by the Defense Ministry.The first three Phalcon AWACS were obtained by the Indian Air Force in 2009 after a $1.1b. deal was signed between India, Israel and Russia in 2004. The system is mounted on a Russian Ilyushin-76 heavy-lift aircraft.