India Likely To Clear Host Of Defense Deals With Israel

India might clear a host of defense deals with Israel ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tel Aviv later this year.

The pacts include acquisition of 164 laser designated pods, Litening-4 for the Indian Air Force (IAF)’ Su-30MKI and Jaguar fighters and 250 Spice precision stand-off bombs capable of taking our fortified enemy underground command centers.

“It should be cleared by the CCS within a month or so,” Times of India news daily quoted an unnamed MoD source as saying Tuesday.

Apart from the Litening-4 and Spice bombs, efforts are being made to close the stalled negotiations on INR 3200 crore contract for procuring 321 Spike anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) systems and 8356 missiles.

“There was a major difference (of opinion) in the ATGM project cost between the Israeli commercial bid and the much-lower price benchmarking done by the MoD. Over 20 contract negotiation committee meetings have been held till now… the effort now is to close the gap,” the source said.

The Indian Army needs the third generation ATGMs to equip its 382 infantry battalions and 44 mechanized infantry units. Israeli Spike ATGMs were choosen over US Javelin missile systems in October 2014. The project involves an initial off-the-shelf induction, followed by large-scale indigenous manufacture by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) to equip the Army.

The proposed MR-SAM project between DRDO and Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), too, will be huge. The initial order is for one MRSAM regiment, with 16 firing units along with their multifunction surveillance and threat tracking radars as well as weapon control systems. But the SAM systems are also to be subsequently produced in bulk by BDL, in keeping with the similar on-going DRDO-IAI projects worth around INR13000 crore for Navy and IAF, the news daily reported.