Israel to supply Air Missiles to Indian Navy, deal worth $777 million

Tel Aviv: Israel Aerospace Industries has won a $777 million contract from India to supply Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missiles for its Navy, according to media.The Israeli state-owned IAI received the contract from Bharat Electronics Ltd, IAI said in a statement on Wednesday.

The LRSAM has long-range engagement capability to penetrate deep water and land to intercept all types of aerial targets including subsonic & supersonic missiles, fighter aircraft, maritime patrolling aircraft, helicopter and sea skimming missiles. 

India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and IAI will partner in the development of the missile system which will be installed in INS Kolkata, INS Kochi, and INS Chennai among other ships, media reports said.

Last year, IAI got the contract of two billion dollars from India to supply missile defence systems. Moreover, the Israeli defence company also received another 630 million dollars contract from BEL to supply Barak 8 surface-to-air missile systems for four ships in the Indian navy.

India accounted for 49 per cent of Israel's arms export between 2013 and 2017, making Israel the third largest supplier to India, according to the 2017 arms transfer report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The other two countries are United States and all-weather friend Russia.

In January this year, Benjamin Netanyahu visited India, the second Israeli prime minister to do so since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992.Mr Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi described the visit as "dawn of a new era" as they signed key deals in defence, agriculture and aviation sectors.In 2017, Mr Modi had visited Jerusalem.(UNI)