The two companies have solid cooperation in defence programmes for India

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) have signed a cooperation agreement to boost India’s needs to meet their Short Range Air Defence Systems requirements on 2 September in Bengaluru.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Kaipa Venkata Suresh Kumar, Marketing Director (Marketing) at BEL, and Avi Elisha, Vice President and General Manager, at the IAI’s Missile Systems Division.

Commenting on the agreement, Boaz Levy, IAI’s President and CEO, spoke about the “successful partnership” that IAI and BEL have in Air Defence in India. “Together, we are providing the Indian Armed Forces with high-end Air Defence capabilities that meet their high-end operational requirements on one hand and ‘Make in India’ requirements on the other. Hence, it is only natural that we expand this cooperation to the Short Range Air Defence domain.”

Bhanu Prakash Srivastava, Chief Managing Director at BEL, also praised the cooperation between the two companies, adding that the agreement “will empower the Indian industry to make significant contributions towards equipping our forces with state-of-the-art Short Range Air Defence Systems.”

The two companies have solid collaboration in joint development/ production/product support programmes for the Indian Defence forces. For instance, back in February, IAI and BEL created a joint venture for product support to the Indian armed forces.

The MoU and other previous initiatives are in line with the Indian programmes/policies “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat” aimed to boost internal industrial capacity and increase foreign investments in many sectors, including defence.