Steven Collins
February 1, 2008
My previous blog was on the subject of India’s launch of an important Israeli spy satellite and India’s emerging alliance with the Israelis and other Western powers. A story in text form (provided below) was sent to me after I posted my previous blog, and it further substantiates this important trend.
As many readers know, India and the USA long had “rocky” relations during the Cold War, and India imported many weapons from Russia and the eastern bloc during that time. Indeed, it appeared that India would become an ally of Russia. After the Soviet Union dismembered itself, world geopolitics changed dramatically and India has drawn steadily closer to the western nations. The rapid rise of China as a military/economic superpower and India’s longstanding tensions with Pakistan have caused India to seek for powerful allies to strengthen its own security situation. Since India is a democracy, it is natural for India to ally itself with the western democracies instead of with the autocratic regimes in China and Russia. One can see a very persuasive case why India and Israel should draw together as allies as well. Israel is opposed by a wide array of Islamic nations and India’s longstanding enemy is Pakistan, an Islamic nation armed with nuclear weapons. Jews and Hindus would both be regarded as “infidels” by radical Islamic nations, so Israel and India have good reason to draw closer together for mutual defense.
The text story cited below reports that India and the Israelis have signed two major military deals, and that Israel is likely to soon become the largest military exporter to India. The article also notes that the United States is emerging as India’s second major source of foreign weaponry, and that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will make his first visit to India later this month to further the warming American-Indian relations. If these trends do develop, Russia’s role as the primary provider of foreign weaponry to India will be steadily downgraded.
In a related second story (see link provided below), it has been revealed that India and Israel are also working on jointly developing and co-producing anti-missile defense systems for India’s military. Israel and India are reported to already be working together to develop a missile defense system for naval ships which can “…prevent saturation of air-defense systems.” This is a key point. China is developing so many offensive cruise missiles that it is clearly preparing for a future attack strategy which features so many Chinese missiles being fired at an enemy carrier force (the USA and India both have aircraft carriers) that defensive anti-missile capacities would be overwhelmed. The Indian-Israeli program is designed to greatly increase the ability of naval ships to defend against a “swarm” of attacking Chinese missiles in a future war scenario. I hope the USA is paying attention to this development as China’s strategy of sending a large “swarm” of missiles against enemy fleets is primarily aimed at overwhelming the defenses of US aircraft carriers.
These trends further support the identification of modern India as the “Sheba and Dedan” nation mentioned in Ezekiel 38:13 which will not be an ally of the Gog-Magog alliance of Russia, China, Iran when a prophesied World War III erupts in the future.
http://www.india-defence.com/print/3416
Israel set to emerge India’s biggest defence supplier
Rahul Datta | New Delhi
With the maturing of at least two major deals, Israel is likely to emerge as the biggest defence partner of India in the next fiscal.
The country likely to emerge as the second biggest defence supplier is the US, whose Defence Secretary Robert Gates will pay his maiden visit to New Delhi in the last week of February to discuss further opening up of the defence sector between the two democracies.
In the backdrop of proposed acquisition of weapon platforms from Israel and the US, the Government is likely to hike the budget for the next financial year by Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000 crore from this year’s Rs 97,000 crore.
The budgetary provisions for the next year would hover around 2.7 per cent of the GDP even though the political class and strategists lobbied for raising it to three per cent, sources said here on Wednesday.
Having established diplomatic relations more than a decade and half ago, India and Israel have strengthened their defence relations and Israel has now emerged as the second defence exporter after Russia.
The next fiscal was likely to see the Israeli industries signing a deal for
more than one billion dollars with India for 50 Green Pine radars to bolster our air defence.
India acquired three of these highly sophisticated radars for air defence system. With the successful test of and with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully testing its defence shield missiles late last year, the need for more Gareen Pine radars had cropped up.
Keen to develop and manufacture the missile in-house, the DRDO was in favour of acquiring the technology transfer for 50 more Green Pine radars and the public sector Bharat Electronic Limited was identified as the manufacturer, sources said.
The entire package was likely to cross the one billion dollar mark thereby making it one of biggest deals with Israel in the last few years, they added.
These radars are critical component of the defence shield and the exo
(outside the atmosphere) and endo (within the atmosphere) missiles developed by the DRDO rely on them to warn within 15 seconds about an incoming enemy missile and the response including the successful interception and shooting down the hostile missile in the next 20 to 25 seconds, sources said.
The other major deal with Israel in the next fiscal was highly sophisticated weapons and communication systems for the elite Special Forces of the Indian Army. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave the nod for the more than 500 million dollar deal last month involving 40 items.
The Special Forces would get items like underwater rifles, kayaks, diver propulsion vehicles, radio transponders, beacon guidance systems and bullet-proof jackets among others through Government-to-Government sale from the US and Israel, source said. In fact, most of the equipment would come from Israel as our security forces were already using some of the best close quarter rifles manufactured by Israel, he pointed out.
The UPA Government also cleared the biggest ever arms deal with the US involving purchase of six large transport planes at an estimated cost of one billion dollars. The nod was given by the CCS last week for the Hercules C-130 J aircraft which has all weather and night flying capabilities and ideally suited for Special Forces operations behind the enemy lines. This commitment would also see the financial planners providing for funds in the next year’s budget, sources said.
