By IANS
New Delhi : Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta leaves here Friday on a five-day visit to Israel for discussions on furthering the burgeoning military ties between the two countries that have seen Tel Aviv emerge as New Delhi’s second largest arms supplier after Russia.
“Admiral Mehta will be visiting Israel Jan 4-8 for a series of high-level meetings with senior military and civilian officials,” official sources said Thursday.
The visit follows that of the Israeli Navy chief Vice Admiral David Ben Bashat in August to discuss bilateral issues as also the security scenario in the Indian Ocean region.
The then Indian Army chief, Gen. J.J Singh, visited Israel earlier last year.
From cautious beginnings in 1992 when the two countries resumed their diplomatic relations, their defence ties have spiralled, with Indian arms purchases from Israel touching $1.6 billion last year. This was against Israel’s sales of $4.2 billion of arms worldwide.
In July, India and Israel announced Rs.100 billion ($2.5 billion) joint venture to develop a medium-range missile for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to replace its ageing Soviet-era Pichora weapon system.
The joint venture between the Defence and Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) would develop a new generation, 70-km range missile.
The IAF will also be associated with the project, which will have an indigenous component of Rs.23 billion.
Eighteen command and launch systems are also to be built for the new missile, which has been described as a robust system to counter a wide variety of threats to ground assets.
The new weapon is likely to be an advanced version of the Israeli Spyder quick-reaction surface-to-air missile the IAF has acquired. The Spyder has an effective range of 55 km.
DRDO and IAI are already in a Rs.14 billion joint venture to develop an extended-range version of the Barak missile that is deployed on frontline Indian Navy warships like the aircraft carrier INS Viraat.
The next-generation Barak will have a 70-km range against the 10-km radius of the existing missile.
IAI is also in the process of converting three Il-78 heavy transport aircraft India has purchased from Russia into an airborne warning and control system (AWACS) by equipping them with the Phalcon radar that is equivalent to the Boeing E3A Sentry that the US Air Force operates.
Over the past decade, India has bought a vast array of military hardware from Israel, including Green Pine missile detecting radars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Travor assault rifles and thermal imagers used both on battle tanks and for counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir.