India is on the brink of closing a deal worth $500 million with Israel for the government-to-government purchase of around 4,500 Spike anti-tank guided missiles for the army. This development comes ahead of Israel defence secretary Udi Adam's visit to New Delhi. Udi Adam is scheduled to visit the capital for the annual joint working group discussion on bilateral defence cooperation.
Defence ministry officials and Israeli diplomats in India confirmed that both sides were awaiting the final approval from the Modi government for the deal.
Major General (Retd) Udi Adams is expected to arrive in India on July 2 . He will leave the next day after holding meetings with his counterpart Sanjay Mitra. He is also expected to pay a courtesy call to defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The army's effort to purchase Spike missiles, which have a range from 800 metres to eight km, has witnessed several ups and downs.
Rafale, an Israeli defence contractor won the contract to sell more than 8000 Spike ATGMs to India in a deal. The deal also included the manufacturing of 3000 of the missile systems in India through the "Make in India" route.
The contract was cancelled in November last year amid uproar from the Israeli side. The procurement was changed to the government-to-government route after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited India earlier this year. In the updated contract, India will now purchase 4,500 weapon systems directly with a small quantity being manufactured in Hyderabad.
India is expected to discuss the possible purchase of two more PHALCON-AWACS for the air force from Israel. This state-of-the-art radar with deep penetration capability is mounted on the Russian IL-76 platform and is expected to cost around $1 billion. India already has three of these advance warning and early detection planes which can look deep into enemy territory. The other point of discussion from the Indian side would the manufacture of TAVOR-21 assault rifles for the Indian security forces under the "Make in India route".
