Israel's eastward march: Arming India

MILPLEX

The 650-pound RISAT-2, delivery of which the Israelis accelerated after Mumbai, also cemented a burgeoning intelligence alliance that has been expanding over the last 40 years -- even though it was a clandestine relationship until India recognized Israel in 1992.

After six decades, Israeli gets arms secret off his chest
Berl Keren is a man of his word. In 1945, he and eight other Jewish underground fighters vowed not to reveal where they had hidden weapons from the then British rulers of Palestine. The British mandate ended and the state of Israel was born in 1948. All of his comrades eventually passed away, but Keren kept his word, refusing to say where the weapons cache lay beneath his Ein Hashofet kibbutz, south of Haifa. Until March. "Three months ago, we told him, why not open it. So he agreed," Ishay Hubrman, a member of the collective community, told the Jerusalem Post. "It was very hard for him to agree, because for him it's (like) breaking (a) law." Even after the 97-year-old Keren finally broke his vow, it took three months to find the exact location of the cache -- underneath what was now the kibbutz gym. When the digging finally began this week, the whole community gathered to see if the weapons were still there. They were. Police sappers gently remove the arms, which included Sten submachine guns, Mauser rifles, bullets and ammunition clips, and photos of the carefully laid-out weapons were splashed across Israeli newspapers. Keren did not say why he finally decided to break his promise, but he did tell the media he was "very relieved" after he did.

Singapore firm offers to join probe into Indian arms scam
A Singapore firm banned by India along with six other armaments companies said Wednesday it was willing to cooperate in an ongoing probe into allegations of corruption in defence deals. Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd., which had been in the race for an artillery contract, also said it had not been informed of its blacklisting by the Indian defence ministry earlier this month. The firm "has not received any official advisory from the Indian authority on the said matter," United News of India (UNI) quoted company spokesman Gaius Ho as saying. The spokesman said the company "has offered all cooperation to assist with any investigation as appropriate." "And it hopes that the ministry will quickly clear the matter," UNI quoted Ho as saying. "Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd. is a responsible company bound by stringent corporate governance. It has not in any way contravened regulations imposed by governments where it operates," he said. India froze deals worth 1.5 billion dollars with seven companies including Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd earlier this month after police arrested a top defence ministry bureaucrat on charges he accepted bribes allegedly from the now blacklisted units. India in 2007 also scrapped a 600-million-dollar deal with Eurocopter for 197 helicopters after allegations of corruption in the bidding process. The helicopter unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company denied media allegations about the involvement of middlemen in the project. Another deal for 22 attack helicopters was scrapped in March on similar charges. India plans to spend 30 billion dollars on arms purchases until 2012. (AFP Reports)

by Staff Writers
Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Jun 17, 2009
The day Osama bin Laden's suicide squads attacked the United States, Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, who in 2001 headed Israel's National Security Council, was conducting a "strategic dialogue" in New Delhi with his Indian counterpart, Brajesh Mishra.

Dayan's presence in the Indian capital on Sept. 11, 2001, was, of course, pure happenstance. But the events of that fateful day cemented a strategic relationship that has never stopped growing and has strengthened Israel's burgeoning influence in southern and central Asia. Today, Israel has overtaken Russia as India's leading defense supplier.

Both Israel and India, one Jewish, the other Hindu, are locked in deadly combat with Islamist extremists, and after the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai -- India's Sept. 11 -- that killed 165 people, including five Israelis, security cooperation between the two nations has skyrocketed -- literally.

On April 20 India launched its RISAT-2 satellite, built by Israel Aerospace Industries, the state-owned flagship of Israel's defense industry. The craft is equipped with the same multi-spectral aperture radar as the TECSTAR 1 satellite developed for Israel's military.

The launch gave India vital surveillance capabilities to guard against further attacks by Islamist raiders, whose seaborne assault it had not detected. But it also gave Israel an important breakthrough: an Indian satellite that will provide additional surveillance of Iran and its missile-launching zones with its sensors that can take photos with a maximum ground resolution of 1 meter day and night and through cloud cover.

That kind of spy capability gives India a major edge over Pakistan, and indeed every other Asian state except China and Japan.

Israel has been hampered in its efforts to keep tabs on Iran because, due to the Jewish state's geographical location, it is only able to launch its own intelligence-gathering satellites westward, against the Earth's rotation.

That limits the range of orbits over Iran. Launching from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the Gulf of Bengal in southeastern India means Israel can launch eastward, adding another dimension to its surveillance of the Islamic Republic.

In January India took delivery of the first of three Phalcon all-weather, early warning command and control systems manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries and mounted on Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft under a $1.1 billion deal.

Delivery had been advanced by two months following the Mumbai attacks. The radar systems were built by Israel's Elta Industries.

Negotiations are under way for another three Phalcons, and if that deal goes through it would be the largest defense contract ever sealed by Israel.

As part of the Phalcon deal, the Israelis disclosed on May 22 that they will establish five factories in India to produce artillery shells, a project reportedly worth $250 million.

The Indian air force thus became the first in South Asia with advanced multi-sensor AWACS aircraft capable of providing tactical surveillance of multiple airborne and surface targets and able to gather signals intelligence.

A month earlier India signed a $4.1 billion deal to purchase a shore-based and seaborne anti-missile air-defense system modeled on Israel's Barak long-range naval weapon built by Israel Aircraft Industries.

The new system will be developed with India's Defense Research and Development Organization and will replace the Indian air force's aging Russian-made S-135 Pechora-1 (SA-3) air-defense systems.

In August 2008 New Delhi signed a $2.5 billion contract with IAI and Israel's Rafale armaments company to jointly develop an advanced version of the Spyder surface-to-air missile.

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U.S. arms firms in Paris rethink markets
Paris (UPI) Jun 16, 2009
U.S. defense firms at the 2009 Paris Air Show are vying to win international contracts to help make up for flatter defense spending after years of strong growth. And while defense program cuts and tighter budgets in the United States are keeping many aircraft in service longer than before, military vendors are counting on reeling in some lucrative contracts for upgraded weapons systems. ... read more

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