NEW DELHI: Defence minister A K Antony is still shy of visiting Israel due to domestic political sensitivities, which even forced his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee to call off his scheduled visit to the Jewish state in June 2006. But the largely covert strategic cooperation between India and Israel is going full steam ahead.
Following in the footsteps of IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi, defence secretary Shekhar Dutt and DRDO chief M Natarajan, among others, Army chief General J J Singh is now in Israel in yet another indicator of the wide-ranging defence ties between the two nations.
With India having bought weapon systems worth $5 billion from Israel in the last five years, the focus is shifting now to more joint R&D projects like the joint development of the Barak-NG anti-missile defence system.
Sources said Gen Singh's 10-day visit to Israel and Italy, with the former being the crucial component, comes at a time when Army is gearing up for a major induction of Israeli UAVs, air defence missile systems, specialised weaponry for its special forces, third-generation thermal imaging and night-vision devices, among others.
Singh will also review ongoing projects with Israel, ranging from mounting of Israeli TISAS (thermal-imaging stand alone systems) on 500 BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles and the massive upgrade of 300 T-72M1 tanks to the production of hand-held thermal imagers and LORROS (long-range reconnaissance and observation systems).
These are just some of the projects taking place in collaboration with Israeli armament firms, the largest of which is the $ 1.1-bn deal for three 'Phalcon'AWACS, which IAF hopes to induct from Nov 2007.
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