Brings Systems Sales to Date to Over $6 Billion
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced on 24 October it has been awarded an additional $777 million contract for the supply of LRSAM air and missile defence (AMD) systems (the marine version of the AMD system BARAK 8) for seven ships of the Indian Navy. The contract is with Indian state-owned company Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), which serves as the main contractor in the project.
The LRSAM system, part of the BARAK 8 family, is an operational AMD system used by Israel’s navy, as well as by India’s naval, air and land forces. It provides broad air and point defence against a wide range of threats to the marine arena from air, sea or land. The system integrates several advanced state-of-the-art systems: digital radar, command and control, launchers, interceptors with modern RF seekers, data link and system-wide connectivity.
“This deal reflects the direction in which IAI is heading: business focus, profitability and growth. IAI’s partnership with India dates back many years and has culminated in joint system development and production. India is a major market for IAI and we plan to progress and reinforce our positioning in India, also in view of increasing competition. For its part, IAI management continually refreshes its business strategy while preserving the core capability and growth engines, of which the BARAK 8 is an example,” commented IAI CEO and President, Nimrod Sheffer.
“We thank our partners in India and BEL for their choice of IAI in a project that best reflects the close technological cooperation between Israel and India. With this deal, the sales of the BARAK 8 over the past few years total over $6 billion. This is another evidence of the capabilities of this advanced weapon system, which serves as a central growth engine for IAI. BARAK 8 is an operational system that provides a full response to a range of threats: built to cooperate with other systems, it provides customers with operational flexibility for maximum effectiveness on the battlefield,” added Executive Vice President and General Manager of IAI’s Systems, Missiles and Space Group, Boaz Levi.
