India and Israel, on 2 June, signed a ‘vision Statement’ to further deepen the long-standing defence cooperation. This was adopted at a meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his visiting Israeli counterpart Benny Gantz.

India is an industrial superpower and Israel is a technological superpower – cooperation between our countries will expand the capabilities of both countries to contend with developing challenges, Gantz said.

“The two Ministers presented a joint declaration marking 30 years of Israel-India relations and reiterated their commitment to deepening defence ties,” a statement from Gantz’s office said. “India and Israel share similar and common challenges, including border security and fighting terrorism. By working together, we may increase our capabilities and ensure the security and economic interests of both countries,” Gantz said.

A Letter of Intent on enhancing cooperation in the field of futuristic defence technologies was also exchanged between the two Ministers, a Defence Ministry statement said.

The discussion covered topics including strategic global challenges, military cooperation, defence industrial cooperation and joint Research and Development (R&D). They also discussed a cooperation agreement signed between the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel’s Directorate for Defence R&D, which will enable the expansion of technological collaboration and development between the countries.

The Ministers declared their intention to further develop defence cooperation in a manner that harnesses Israel’s “technological advance and operational experience”, together with India’s “extraordinary development and production capabilities”, the statement said.

In addition, the Ministers discussed partnerships within the government-to-government framework, military training, and technological cooperation with a focus on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and defensive capabilities, the statement added.

10-year Roadmap

In October 2021, India and Israel had agreed to form a task force to formulate a comprehensive 10-year roadmap to identify new areas of cooperation as part of efforts to further advance the bilateral defence cooperation. This was agreed at the 15th India-Israel Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on bilateral defence cooperation held on October 27, 2021 in Tel Aviv, Israel, the Defence Ministry had stated. The JWG is the apex body between the Defence Ministries of the two countries to comprehensively review and guide all aspects of bilateral defence cooperation.

At the same meeting, it was also decided to form a Sub Working Groups (SWG) on defence industry cooperation and in this regard, a Terms of Reference was signed between the two sides. The SWG would enable efficient utilisation of bilateral resources, effective flow of technologies and sharing industrial capabilities, the Ministry had stated.

Overview of Defence Cooperation and Trade

India, since 2017, has also become a strategic partner and a co-producer of Israeli weapons. Over the past five years, both countries have conducted joint military drills and hosted police and army training and exchange visits.

The India-Israel relationship has grown significantly over the last 30 years especially in the field of missiles, radars, electronic warfare systems and other weapons and equipment.

But it hasn’t always been this way. Until 1992, India did not have diplomatic relations with Israel.  Now, India and Israel have inked separate deals worth around $3 billion over the last four to five years for advanced surface-to-air missile systems for the three Services.

Israel provided India with weapons in 1962 and then in 1965 in the wars against China and Pakistan. By the early 1970s, the Indian military establishment was impressed by and enamoured with Israeli technology.

The first purchases India made from Israel were two Super Dvora Mk II fast patrol boats in the mid-1990s.

Soon New Delhi began importing high-end defence equipment, including Israeli Searcher and Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and armed drones, missile systems, and sensors and electro-optical systems or Tavor assault weapons used by Indian Special Forces in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Following several interactions between military leaders in the early 1990s, India agreed to assign a defence attache to Tel Aviv in 1995.

In 1999, Israel provided India with urgent assistance in its war with Pakistan, a move that established Israel as a reliable military partner.

Between 1997 and 2000, 15 percent of all Israeli arms exports travelled to India. By the mid-2000s, this had increased to 27 percent, with India broadening its range of purchases, such as surveillance equipment, drones and surface-to-air-missiles. Between 2000 and 2010, India spent around $10bn on Israeli arms.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered office in 2014, around 42.1 percent of all arms exports from Israel have landed in India.

Between 2014 and 2021, India received combat aircraft radar equipment, armed UAVs, anti-tank missiles and surface-to-air missiles, among other hardware from Israel. The Indian military is reportedly in possession of 108 Israeli Searcher drones and 68 unarmed Heron 1s. It also has several Harpy drones – also known as suicide attack drones.

Just as the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020, Modi’s government ordered 16,479 Negev light machine guns, sparking outrage among some Indian activists.

In its “surgical strikes” on Pakistan in 2019, India used Israeli-made “Spice 2000” bombs.

In 2021, during the standoff with China, India leased and finally bought four Heron-TP Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAVs from Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI).

According to Sipri, weapons deliveries to India from Israel increased by 175 percent between 2015 and 2019. Meanwhile, Israeli arms exports increased 19 percent between 2012-16 and 2017-2021. Its own spending on arms increased by 3.1 percent.

Co-production of Arms

India has worked with Israel in co-producing weapons. In 2017, Israel Weapons Industries and Indian construction company Punj Lloyd created the first private small arms factory in Malanpur, under the name Punj Lloyd Raksha Systems, or PLR Systems.

According to PLR Systems, also a joint venture with Adani Group and the SK Group, the factory produces the Tavor Assault Rifle, X95 Assault Rifle, Galil Sniper Rifle, Negev Light Machine Gun and the Uzi Sub Machine Gun used by the Indian military, including Indian Special Forces.

Later in 2017, Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems Ltd (KRAS), a joint venture between India’s Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Systems, began manufacturing Spike anti-tank guided missiles for the Indian army.

It was the first private company to produce missiles in India.

In 2019, KRAS received an order of $100m to produce the Barak-8, a long-range surface-to-air missile, for the Indian navy.

In late 2021, the military ordered Skystriker drones. This will now be produced in a joint venture between Israel’s Elbit Systems and India’s Adani-owned Alpha Design Technologies.

Major Arms Supplier

Israel has been one of India’s top defence partners supplying a range of high end defence equipment. Indian armed forces rely heavily on Israeli Searcher and Heron UAVs to meet their surveillance requirements with growing need for more. In the backdrop of the standoff with China in eastern Ladakh, last year the Army had leased four Heron-TP Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAVs from Israel Aircraft Industries which have since been inducted.

The two countries have several joint development projects in the pipeline, including the Long Range Surface to Air Missile also called Barak-8 for the Indian Navy’s warships. The development which saw some delays is now complete and the missile systems are being inducted.

In another important project, in April, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited entered into a memorandum of understanding with IAI to convert six Boeing-767 civil passenger aircraft to midair refuelling aircraft in India for the Indian Air Force.

However, another major deal for two more Phalcon Airborne Warning And Control Systems (AWACS), to add to three in Service, has been stuck for a while for final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security. With the current focus on indigenous manufacturing and DRDO now indigenously developing larger AWACS, the Phalcon is unlikely to materialise.

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The Israeli `tank killers’ were ordered under emergency procurements last year due to the troop stand-off with China, which is yet to show any signs of de-escalation. The sheer utility of such weapons has been demonstrated during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Ukrainian troops armed with US-origin Javelin ATGMs and western next-generation light anti-tank light missiles (NLAWs) have destroyed hundreds of Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles since the conflict began on February 24.

The Israeli family of Spike ATGMs is equally lethal and versatile.

The Army is inducting the Spike LR-2launchers and missiles, which have a ground strike range of 5.5-km, while the IAF is integrating its Russian-origin Mi-17 V5 armed helicopters with Spike NLOS (non-line of sight) missiles that can destroy ground targets around 30-km away.

“Both the fifth-generation ATGMs are being inducted in limited numbers under emergency procurements to plug certain operational gaps. The much larger requirement for ATGMs will be met through `Make in India’ projects,” a top defence source said on Sunday.

“The pilot-controlled NLOS missiles, which can be armed with different kinds of warheads, are primarily meant for specialized ‘behind the hill’ missions by IAF helicopters,” he added.

The IAF, incidentally, has 22 Apache attack helicopters, armed with Stinger air-to-air missiles, Hellfire Longbow air-to-ground missiles, guns and rockets, inducted under the Rs 13,952 crore deal with the US in September 2015. The Army, in turn, is getting six Apaches under a Rs 5,691 crore deal in February 2020.

The Spike LR-2 missiles can be used with either a tandem HEAT (high explosive anti-tank) warhead, with 30% more armour-penetration capability, or a smart multi-purpose warhead.

The Army had earlier also inducted a limited number of an earlier generation of Spike tank-killers, with a strike range of 4-km, to meet immediate operational requirements till the indigenous man-portable ATGMs being developed by DRDO were ready.

With a huge deficiency in different kinds of shoulder, vehicle and helicopter-launched ATGMs, the Army has been demanding third and fourth-generation ATGMs for well over a decade.

The force’s existing inventory largely consists of second-generation Milan-2T (2-km range) and Konkurs (4-km) ATGMs, produced by defence PSU Bharat Dynamics under licence from French and Russian companies.

The indigenous helicopter-launched third-generation ATGMS, Helina for Army and Dhruvastra for IAF with a maximum strike range of 8-km, have been successfully tested from Dhruv advanced light helicopters but are yet to be inducted till now.

Similarly, DRDO tested the man-portable ATGM, with a 2.5-km strike range, in its “final deliverable configuration” in January this year. But it is still some time away from induction.

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The Spike order will be a repeat order for 12 launchers and around 250 missiles under emergency procurement, the source stated. Last year, the Army procured 12 launchers and around 250 missiles from Israel under the new financial powers for emergency procurements sanctioned by the Defence Ministry after the Balakot air strike.

According to the manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, the Spike LR is a 4th Gen missile, which can engage a target with precision at ranges up to 4 km.

Under the new emergency powers, armed forces were given a free hand to procure equipment worth up to Rs 300 crore on a priority basis with deliveries stipulated to be completed in three months but extendable up to six months. Entirely new systems not in use were also allowed to be procured under the new powers last year. Under a Rs 700 crore deal in February 2019 with Sig Sauer of the U.S., the Army procured 72,400 SIG-716 assault rifles which have been provided to frontline troops involved in counter-insurgency operations. The remaining demand for assault rifles was to be met through the licence manufacture of Russian AK-203 rifles in India through a joint venture. However, the final deal has been stuck over the issue of pricing. An in-principle decision has been taken to place a repeat order and it is being processed, the source stated.
The Army has a much larger requirement for ATGMs which will be met through indigenous Man Portable ATGM under development by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) after an earlier tender was cancelled.

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