India largest buyer of Israeli arms

JERUSALEM: Buoyed by Indian defence procurement worth $1.5 billion, the Israeli defence industries have recorded all-time high sales figures in 2006.

“India was Israel’s biggest customer with purchases reaching $1.5 billion,” Maj Gen Yossi Ben-Hanan, head of SIBAT, the Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Department at the defence ministry said.

It included Israel’s single largest sale to a foreign country made by the Israel Aircraft Industries in the sale of the Barak Naval anti-missile defense system, valued at some $450 million, Ben-Hanan told the daily.

Unperturbed by the US entry into the Indian market, the defence official said it would not make a dent in Israeli defence sales to New Delhi. “America sells fighter jets, tanks and helicopters and we do not compete with them,” Ben-Hanan said. On the contrary, he said, that it may even lead to an increase.

“We can for example sell the necessary accompanying systems that they will need alongside the larger US platforms,” Ben-Hanan noted. Defence Industries sources said that “despite certain speculations, the bilateral defence ties remain as strong as ever”. Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi and Navy vice-chief Vice-Admiral Venkat Bharathan, among others, visited Israel in 2006 to re-affirm the strong ties.

Joint R&D projects for more advanced radars, long-endurance and high-altitude UAVs, electronic warfare systems, third-generation night fighting capabilities and such other areas are being explored for cooperation. As per sources, missiles and anti-missile defence systems, however, remain a priority area.