NEW DELHI, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- India and Israel have signed their first joint weapons development contract to produce Barak-II defense missiles for warships.
The Indian Express newspaper said Tuesday that after 17 months of complex inter-government negotiations the deal was concluded Jan. 27, but kept under wraps for political reasons.
"The Barak-II will be jointly developed by the Israeli Aircraft Industries, the Barak program's secondary integrator Rafeal and by the Hyderabad based Defense Research and Development Laboratories," said a source in the Indian defense ministry.
He said the two countries would share the approximately $330 million as kick-start investment.
"It will be based on the original Barak, but we will work together for longer range, target-tracking system, better down linking capabilities and possibly a new propulsion system and payload capacity," said a senior official.
The Barak-I and Barak-II will replace ageing Russian OSA-M and Volna RA-31 missiles still in operation on most Indian warships. The Indian Navy has expressed its satisfaction over Barak-I's performance and has confirmed it approves of the deal.
The Navy says Israeli efficiency was a factor in the deal, when compared with the traditional delays from dealing with the Russians. India made a joint development offer to Israel in July 2004.
After the meeting of the joint working group of the two countries, the Indian government sought the Navy's views. The federal Cabinet cleared the deal early this year.
The new variant, to be developed over three years, will be built for a targeting range of at least 30 miles.
