BEL Eyes More LRSAM Orders For India’s P-17A Stealth Frigate Program

India’s state-owned Bharat Electronics (BEL) is expecting to sign a contract for next seven Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM) systems for the Navy’s P-17A stealth frigates program.

“BEL has already signed a contract for the first four systems. We expect to sign a contract for the next seven systems for the P-17A flagship by the end of 2018. The process of procurement has already been initiated by the Navy,” BEL CMD, M V Gowtama said during the annual press conference Wednesday.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on Sunday closed deal worth USD 630 million with India to supply advanced long range air and missile defence systems for four ships of the Indian Navy. The deal, a major boost to the 'Make in India' campaign, will be jointly executed with BEL and comes close on the heels of Israel's largest defence contract ever worth $2 billion to supply the Indian Army and Navy with missile defence systems.

The LRSAM is a joint development by IAI and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation. It comprises several elements, advanced phased-array radar, command-and-control system, launchers and missiles with advanced radio-frequency (RF) seekers

The system provides the ultimate protection against a variety of aerial, naval and air borne threats. It is currently operational with the Indian Air Force, Indian Navy and Israel Defence Forces. The Indian Army is also likely to deploy it soon.

The LRSAM was last week successfully tested in India as part of operational interception trial aboard Indian Navy ship "demonstrating again the system's operational capabilities in a representative scenario with genuine target", a statement from IAI said

"All components of the weapon system have successfully met the goals set to them", the company said.

The contract will be carried out, for the first time, with BEL serving as the main contractor in the project as part of the ‘Make in India’ policy.

In regard to Akash missiles, he said, “We have completed the deliveries of Akash for the orders we received. We had received orders from Air Force for two squadrons and later six squadrons. All of these orders have been completed. We received orders from BDL for them to deliver to two regiments of the Indian Army; we have completed the deliveries in that regard”.

“We expect orders from 3rd squadron from Air Force at any time, Defense Acquisition Council has cleared induction of two more regiments of Akash for the SRSAM requirement of the Indian Army. We expect that we should get the orders by March 2018,” he added.