Jerusalem: State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries said on Sunday it has closed another major deal worth $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 the Indian government’s Bharat Electronics Limited (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.
IAI said the $630-million contract is for supplying Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) systems. The LRSAM is a joint development by IAI and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation. It comprises several key state-of-the-art 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 airborne 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.
