NEW DELHI, March 5: India and Israel signed a one-billion-dollar deal on Friday for the supply of three Phalcon airborne early warning radar systems to New Delhi, a defence spokesman said.
Under the terms of the agreement given the go-ahead by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday, Israel would buy Ilyushin-76 cargo aircraft from Uzbekistan which would then be sent to Russia to be fitted with new high-powered engines.
After structural modifications, the aircraft would be sent to Israel to be mounted with the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) radar system and the complete aircraft would be delivered to India.
The aircraft will be delivered within 44 months of an advance payment by India to Israel, spokesman Amitabh Chakravarty said. The Phalcon system can pick out enemy aircraft flying hundreds of miles away in all weather, at day or night and even those flying at low altitude.
It can also intercept and decode radio transmissions. The purchase will give a huge boost to the Indian Air Force's intelligence gathering capabilities, analysts said.
"It is a significant development. It would give a fillip to India's air defence and trans-border surveillance capability, said Uday Bhaskar, deputy director of New Delhi's Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis.
"It would also strengthen India-Israel military cooperation and also India-Russian. It would be a successful example of multilateral cooperation," he added.
Mr Bhaskar said that the deal would also help India address "some of the gaps in modernisation of the military." The deal was signed in New Delhi by C.R. Mahapatra, joint secretary of the Indian defence ministry, and Israel Livnet, vice president of the Israeli Aircraft Industrial Corporation, Chakravarty said.
He did not say whether there would be transfer of technology from Israel to India. India had reached an agreement on the deal with Israel and Russia in October, a month after a visit to New Delhi by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The deal could proceed after a go-ahead from the United States, which had earlier blocked the sale of Phalcons to both India and China. Israel coordinates its military sales with Washington because the two nations' defence industries are closely linked and often share technological advances.
Israel in recent years has become India's second largest defence supplier after Russia, with armament sales reaching 60 billion rupees (1.25 billion dollars) in 2001. -AFP
