India to buy Russian bombs, Israeli missiles

NEW DELHI : India on Tuesday cleared two proposals to buy smart bombs from Russia and surface-to-air missiles from Israel to strengthen the capabilities of its Air Force and Navy.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman approved the purchase of 240 bombs from Russia’s Rosoboronexport to scale up the offensive capabilities of the IAF and 131 Barak missiles from Israel’s Rafael Advance Defence Systems Ltd for the Navy, a government spokesperson said.

Rosoboronexport is a Russian state entity responsible for exporting military products.

The bombs will cost ~1,254 crore and the missile deal will be worth ~460 crore, the spokesperson said. He said the bomb purchase would address the deficiency of precision guided munitions besides enhancing the IAF’S offensive capabilities.

The Barak missiles are being bought by invoking an ‘option clause’ that was part of a previous contract.

The naval surface-to-air missile system is designed to protect warships from anti-ship missiles.

India inked deals worth $2 billion with Israel in April 2017 for advanced surface-to-air missile systems to provide the military with the capability to shoot down hostile warplanes and missiles.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will provide the Indian Army with advanced mediumrange surface-to-air missile systems as part of the deal. IAI said the deal, cleared in February, was the single largest contract in Israel’s defence industry history.