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India's biggest military project with Israel under scrutiny | idrw.org
The government is seriously worried about a high profile Indo-Israel joint development programme for surface-to-air missiles for the Navy and the IAF at an estimated cost of Rs 13,000 crore.
The project (Navy calls it the long-range SAM and the IAF calls it the medium-range SAM) is now under intense scrutiny at various levels. In the wake of the ongoing examination, the defence ministry is believed to have put on hold all further orders for the missile, estimated to total another Rs 50,000 crore.
The joint development of LRSAM between the DRDO and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for the Navy was signed in 2006, while theMRSAM project for the IAF was signed in 2009.
The project has been delayed by almost four years, and the latest trials did not meet the operational requirements projected by the IAF and the Navy, sources said. A private company floated by the Tata group and IAI, Nova Integrated Systems, was to be the final integrator of the project, but that is no more the case.
Sources said with Nova being out of the picture, there is no clarity about who will be involved in the final integration. DRDO is believed to have suggested that it will set up the assembly line for integration in Hyderabad. However, given its role as the military research agency, the government may not agree to DRDO ending up running an assembly line.
A senior official said it was surprising that defence PSUs such as BDL (Bharat Dynamics Limited) and BEL ( Bharat Electronics Ltd) were not consulted when the project was conceptualized. A few months ago, IAI, BEL and BDL had entered into an MoU to work out a final contract for the integration of the system, sources said.
The entire project was pushed forward on the argument that an open global tender for the purchase of the missile would hugely delay its induction given the massive gaps in India's air defence, which is dependent on ageing Russian Pechora systems. However, the joint development project itself is now about four years behind schedule, sources said.
The LRSAM for the Navy was to be ready by 2010. Sources said the latest trials a few weeks ago did not meet the requirements of both Navy and IAF.
As the government takes a closer look at the project, it is clear that none of the crucial technologies of the system, such as seeker, fuses, radar, tracking system, electronic control systems etc, are coming to India, nor are they being developed by DRDO. DRDO is developing only the propellant, actuators and similar stuff. The rocket motors being developed by DRDO has also failed to meet requirements, sources said.
A source argued that the entire programme was signed only as a work share contract, not as a joint development programme. If it was a joint development programme, the intellectual property rights (IPR) of all technology developed for the project would be held jointly by India and Israel. In this case, despite India funding the entire development, it won't have IPR access to the technologies being developed in Israel.
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The government is seriously worried about a high profile Indo-Israel joint development programme for surface-to-air missiles for the Navy and the IAF at an estimated cost of Rs 13,000 crore.
The project (Navy calls it the long-range SAM and the IAF calls it the medium-range SAM) is now under intense scrutiny at various levels. In the wake of the ongoing examination, the defence ministry is believed to have put on hold all further orders for the missile, estimated to total another Rs 50,000 crore.
The joint development of LRSAM between the DRDO and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for the Navy was signed in 2006, while theMRSAM project for the IAF was signed in 2009.
The project has been delayed by almost four years, and the latest trials did not meet the operational requirements projected by the IAF and the Navy, sources said. A private company floated by the Tata group and IAI, Nova Integrated Systems, was to be the final integrator of the project, but that is no more the case.
Sources said with Nova being out of the picture, there is no clarity about who will be involved in the final integration. DRDO is believed to have suggested that it will set up the assembly line for integration in Hyderabad. However, given its role as the military research agency, the government may not agree to DRDO ending up running an assembly line.
A senior official said it was surprising that defence PSUs such as BDL (Bharat Dynamics Limited) and BEL ( Bharat Electronics Ltd) were not consulted when the project was conceptualized. A few months ago, IAI, BEL and BDL had entered into an MoU to work out a final contract for the integration of the system, sources said.
The entire project was pushed forward on the argument that an open global tender for the purchase of the missile would hugely delay its induction given the massive gaps in India's air defence, which is dependent on ageing Russian Pechora systems. However, the joint development project itself is now about four years behind schedule, sources said.
The LRSAM for the Navy was to be ready by 2010. Sources said the latest trials a few weeks ago did not meet the requirements of both Navy and IAF.
As the government takes a closer look at the project, it is clear that none of the crucial technologies of the system, such as seeker, fuses, radar, tracking system, electronic control systems etc, are coming to India, nor are they being developed by DRDO. DRDO is developing only the propellant, actuators and similar stuff. The rocket motors being developed by DRDO has also failed to meet requirements, sources said.
A source argued that the entire programme was signed only as a work share contract, not as a joint development programme. If it was a joint development programme, the intellectual property rights (IPR) of all technology developed for the project would be held jointly by India and Israel. In this case, despite India funding the entire development, it won't have IPR access to the technologies being developed in Israel.
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