Is India’s good friend cheating it over jointly developed air defense system? The friend is…, it is selling DRDO’s…
New Delhi: India and Israel have had a strong defense partnership for the last several decades. But this is the first time that questions have been raised on the intentions of the friendly country. Allegations are being made that Israel is marketing and trying to sell this air defense system alone, which it had made in collaboration with India’s DRDO.
What is the advanced air defense system in question?
Barak-8 is an advanced air defense system. This is the same system that intercepted and shot down a Pakistani missile in the sky in Sirsa, Haryana. It has been developed jointly by India’s DRDO and Israeli company Israel Aerospace Industries. According to the latest reports, Israel is now trying to sell this missile to some countries of the world by giving it a new name of ‘Barak-MX’. Barak-8 was an important milestone in the strategic relations between the two countries, but Israel’s attempt to sell this missile alone is going to trouble India.
Why could it affect DRDO’s credibility?
A website named defence.in has claimed that Israel has not included the technology developed by DRDO in the export variant of Barak-8 air defense system. Especially the dual pulse rocket motor has not been included by Israel in the variant being sold. Israel’s attempt to do so hurts the hard work of DRDO, its capability and the name it is building in the defense sector as it has made many weapons based on indigenous technology for India.
What is the contribution of Indian entities in this project?
India started this project in 2006 with Israel at an initial cost of Rs 2500 crore with an aim developing advanced air defense systems for both countries. This air defense system was designed to intercept ballistic missiles, advanced drones, cruise missiles and fighter aircraft up to the fourth generation. Major Indian defense companies including Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) were involved in the production of essential parts of this system. In collaboration with Israel, India has developed an advanced air defense system, which has also proved its capability by shooting down the Pakistani ballistic missile Fateh-2 in the air.
DRDO developed a special dual-pulse rocket motor for the Barak air defense system which gives the missile fired from this air defense system the ability to maintain its speed and change direction suddenly until it hits the target. Israel also got a huge defense market like India for this missile defense system.
Why is Israel selling this system unilaterally under a different name?
Despite this, Israel is selling this system unilaterally under the name ‘Barak MX’ for which it has signed a deal with Azerbaijan for 12 Barak air defense systems. In 2022, Israel had signed a deal worth $ 500 million with Morocco. The main point of contention is that the Barak air defense systems that Israel is selling do not have dual-pulse rocket motors, which have been developed by DRDO. Reportedly, Israel is talking to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) about the sale of Barak defense systems.
Is Israel trying to bypass India?
According to defense.in, by using its propulsion system in the export model of the Barak Defense System, Israel is bypassing the help that India has provided at the technology level. Due to this, India is not getting any benefit in the global defense market. Apart from this, the situation is also not clear regarding the intellectual property and data rights related to this project, which raises questions on India’s technical and economic participation.
According to the report, Israel’s doing this has put New Delhi into action. It is believed that if Israel tries to make partnerships on a unilateral basis, then both future strategic cooperation and trust in Israel may be affected. This may affect future defense agreements between the two countries.
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