08-01-2006, 07:10 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India can't afford to snap Israel ties
Rajat Pandit
[ 1 Aug, 2006 0357hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee may have 'deferred' his visit to Israel last month due to 'political sensitivities', but there is little chance of UPA government capitulating to the Left's demand for severing all military ties with the Jewish state.
The Indian armed forces have now come to bank heavily upon Israel for acquiring cutting-edge military technology in areas ranging from UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), radars and thermal imagers to missiles, anti-missile defence and electronic warfare systems.
"France, for instance, sells weapons to both sides of LoC. If we are getting the French Scorpene submarines, Pakistan has already got the Agosta-90B submarines. With Israel, there is no such fear," said a senior defence official.
Israel, in fact, even chipped in with ordnance supplies and surveillance systems during the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.
"The Israelis charged a lot but they swiftly supplied us with desperately-needed equipment, often dipping into their own military reserves. It stepped in with frontier military technology, when we were still facing the Pokhran-II sanctions," he added.
The burgeoning bilateral defence relationship is, of course, extremely profitable to Israel, notching up as it does military sales worth $900 million a year to India. It's second only to Russia in this respect, which sells defence equipment worth around $1,500 million to India every year.
Russia, of course, has had a long headstart in this since the 1960s. But irritated with delay in delivery schedules and unreliable spares supply after Soviet Unionâs breakup, India in recent years has increasingly turned to Israel for high-tech weaponry.
From November 2007 onwards, for instance, India will induct three Israeli 'Phalcon' AWACS (airborne warning and control systems), which can detect cruise missiles, low-flying aircraft and other air intrusions much earlier than ground-based radars.
The Phalcon deal came at a whopping $1.1 billion, but India had the satisfaction of knowing that a similar deal for China had been spiked by the US.
The defence relationship with Israel, which actually predates the establishment of full-fledged diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv in 1992, finally came out of the closet during the Kargil conflict. The Navy, for instance, acquired nine Barak-I anti-missile defence systems at a cost of Rs 1,160 crore, along with 200 Barak missiles worth Rs 350 crore, from Israel.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...833361.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rajat Pandit
[ 1 Aug, 2006 0357hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee may have 'deferred' his visit to Israel last month due to 'political sensitivities', but there is little chance of UPA government capitulating to the Left's demand for severing all military ties with the Jewish state.
The Indian armed forces have now come to bank heavily upon Israel for acquiring cutting-edge military technology in areas ranging from UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), radars and thermal imagers to missiles, anti-missile defence and electronic warfare systems.
"France, for instance, sells weapons to both sides of LoC. If we are getting the French Scorpene submarines, Pakistan has already got the Agosta-90B submarines. With Israel, there is no such fear," said a senior defence official.
Israel, in fact, even chipped in with ordnance supplies and surveillance systems during the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.
"The Israelis charged a lot but they swiftly supplied us with desperately-needed equipment, often dipping into their own military reserves. It stepped in with frontier military technology, when we were still facing the Pokhran-II sanctions," he added.
The burgeoning bilateral defence relationship is, of course, extremely profitable to Israel, notching up as it does military sales worth $900 million a year to India. It's second only to Russia in this respect, which sells defence equipment worth around $1,500 million to India every year.
Russia, of course, has had a long headstart in this since the 1960s. But irritated with delay in delivery schedules and unreliable spares supply after Soviet Unionâs breakup, India in recent years has increasingly turned to Israel for high-tech weaponry.
From November 2007 onwards, for instance, India will induct three Israeli 'Phalcon' AWACS (airborne warning and control systems), which can detect cruise missiles, low-flying aircraft and other air intrusions much earlier than ground-based radars.
The Phalcon deal came at a whopping $1.1 billion, but India had the satisfaction of knowing that a similar deal for China had been spiked by the US.
The defence relationship with Israel, which actually predates the establishment of full-fledged diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv in 1992, finally came out of the closet during the Kargil conflict. The Navy, for instance, acquired nine Barak-I anti-missile defence systems at a cost of Rs 1,160 crore, along with 200 Barak missiles worth Rs 350 crore, from Israel.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...833361.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->