“The Indian Express” reports an agreement for the development of a new-generation Barak II missile system.
“The Indian Express” reports that Israel and India have signed their first joint weapons development agreement. The agreement is for the development of a new-generation Barak II ship-borne anti-missile-missile point-defense missile system. Israel and India will share the initial $330 million investment in the system.
The contract was signed on January 27, after 17 months of negotiations, but was only announced today, due to political reasons. Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. (IAI) is the Israeli partner in the program, and the Defence Research and Development Laboratories (DRDL) is the Indian partner.
DRDL sources told “The Indian Express”, “It will be based on the original Barak, but we will work together for longer range, a more refined seeker, a long-range target-tracking system, better downlinking capabilities and possibly a new propulsion system and payload capacity.’’ The Barak I and the Barak II missiles will replace the ageing Russian OSA-M and Volna RZ-31 missiles still in operation on most Indian warships. Indian Navy sources pointed to the inherent advantage of the Barak family’s digital systems over the analog computers that guide the Russian missiles.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on February 7, 2006