http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/india-israel-introducing-mr-sam-03461/
India & Israel’s Barak SAM Development Project(s)
Despite a development timeline measured in decades, India’s indigenous “Akash” and “Trishul” programs for surface to air missiles have failed to inspire full confidence. Trishul was eventually canceled entirely, and Akash had a rough time of it but seems to have found a niche in the rugged terrain of the northeast. India still needed longer-range advanced SAMs to equip its navy and army, however, and decided to try to duplicate the success of the Russian partnership that had fielded the excellent PJ-10 BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
In February 2006, therefore, Israel and India signed a joint development agreement to create a new Barak-NG medium shipborne air defense missile, as an evolution of the Barak-1 system in service with both navies. In July 2007 the counterpart MR-SAM project began moving forward, aiming to develop a medium range SAM for use with India’s land forces. Both missiles would now be called Barak-8. In between, “India to Buy Israeli “SPYDER” Mobile Air Defense System” covered India’s move to begin buying mobile, short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems for its army, based on the Python and Derby air-to-air missiles in service with its air force and naval aircraft.
These projects offer India a way forward to address its critical air defense weaknesses, and upgrade “protection of vital and strategic ground assets and area air defence.” In Israel, the Barak-8 is slated to equip its next-generation frigates, and may find its way to other roles. Beyond those 2 countries, export prospects beckon for a missile that may offer a value-priced alternative to the popular Standard-2 and Aster-15. This DID FOCUS article will cover the Barak-8 pograms in India, Israel, and beyond. The latest development involves additional reports that a firm $1+ billion contract has been signed…
Barak is a supersonic, vertically-launched short range air defense system, with an operational range of about 10 km/ 6 miles. That pushes it past the standard ranges of shoulder-launched options with naval counterparts, like the MBDA Mistral/SIMBAD or Saab Boofors’ RBS-70, but short of other small vertical launch options like the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow. Its closest western compettors on the international market are probably Raytheon’s horizontally-fired Amero-German RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile, and MBDA’s flexible Crotale VT-1/NG. Key attributes include a compact 8-cell vertical launching system that weighs just 1,700 kg, coupled with an equally compact 1,300 kg fire control system. This makes it easier to instal in small ships, and to retrofit into older vessels.
Barak-1 reportedly in service with at Israel, Chile, India, Singapore, and Venezuela.
India bought over $300 million worth of these missiles as a substitute for the indigenous but long-delayed Trishul (“Trident”) missile project, and Barak systems now equip many of the ships in India’s Navy. The missile’s fast response time, effectiveness against missile threats, and compact size are considerable assets, but they are currently offset somewhat by its range.
The Navy’s Barak-NG/ LR-SAM project aimed to give the missiles a much longer reach, with the intention of making it India’s primary naval SAM. The project was later renamed Barak 8. According to Defense News, the project features funding from American military aid dollars, as well as Indian cooperation and private/governmental funding in Israel. An Israeli source, on the other hand, has told DID that the USA has no claim on the Barak-8’s intellectual property. DID has been unable to verify he exact situation; but if the USA has no IP or significant American-made components in the Barak AMD system, it would have implications for both procurement funding sources and export policy.
The Barak 8 missile reportedly extends its range to 60-70 km/ up to 42 miles, thanks to a dual-pulse solid rocket motor whose second “pulse” fires as the missile approaches its target. This ensures that the missile isn’t just coasting in the final stages, giving it several chances at a fast, maneuvering target. The missile’s most important feature, however, may be its active seeker. Instead of forcing its ship or land-based radar to “paint”/illuminate its target at all times, the Barak 8 can be left alone once it is close to its target. This is an excellent approach for dealing with saturation attacks using older ship radars, which can track many targets but illuminate just a few. It’s also very useful for land-based systems, which will survive longer against enemy anti-radar missiles (ARMs) if they can turn themselves on and off to confuse enemy seekers, without worrying that they will lose all of their effectiveness.
That kind of performance vaults the Barak 8 past widespread options like the RIM-162 ESSM, or entires like VL-MICA on land. Though the Barak-8 may compete for orders that would otherwise go to those systems, a better comparison would be naval missiles like Raytheon’s SM-2 Block IIIA and MBDA’s Aster-15, or land-based options like the Patriot. The Barak 8’s active seeker would even give it a performance advantage over the SM-2, and corresponds more closely to the SM-6 currently in development. One wild card is the Barak’s potential use in a point defense role against ballistic missiles, a role that can be played by some of its more advanced competitors on land or sea. This capability is implied in the land-based system’s name, but has not been discussed publicly or validated in publicly announced tests.
The naval Barak-8 reportedly maintains its principle of using compact launchers and systems. Reports regarding its range vary from 70-120 km. Its ancillary capabilities will always depend on the radar and combat system aboard its ship.
The land-based Barak 8 Air and Missile Defense (AMD) system includes several components. The battle management, command, control, communication and intelligence center (BMC4I) is produced by the MBT Division of IAI’s Missiles, Systems, and Space Group; it offers both stand alone operation for a single fire unit, and joint task force coordination (JTC). RAFAEL supplies the Barak-8 interceptor missile, which remains vertically launched. IAI ELTA Systems Ltd. supplies the Land-Based Multi-Function Surveillance, Track & Guidance Radar (LB-MF-STAR), a rotating S-band digital Active Electronic Steering Array (AESA) Radar System that can deliver an accurate, high quality arena situation picture, and extract low radar cross section targets like stealthy cruise missiles, even in the toughest environmental conditions. The naval MF-STAR is expected to be part of Israel’s next-generation missile frigates.
India’s Barak Programs
India has 2 different programs that could use the new longer-range Barak missile. India’s Navy has decided as a matter of policy that it will only mount medium-long range surface-to-air missile systems on future warships, as opposed to depending on short range systems that might protect a ship, but don’t offer the same layered defense or fleet defense opportunities. This is an early sign of its transition to a more of a “blue water” navy that can reach into high-threat areas, and a logical complement to India’s establishment of a serious carrier force beginning with INS Vikramaditya (ex Admiral Gorshkov). Hence the 2006 Barak-NG naval agreement, which gives India an upgraded version of a familiar system, extends India’s technological capabilities, fosters economic ties and integration at sub-component levels, and helps the Israelis build a new system that meets some of their own emerging requirements. The new system would reportedly have a range of 50-60 km.
Making that happen required some loosening of bureaucratic constraints on India’s defense industry. Based on projections of need and the high cost of air defense systems, India’s Ministry of Defence began initiatives under which Indian state-owned agencies can forge joint co-development and co-production ventures with foreign companies. The rationale is that under these partnerships, much of the underlying technology will remain in India. Israel has risen to become one of India’s largest defense industry partners, and may be on its way to surpassing Russia as India’s largest partner. That rise, India’s previous positive experiences with Barak, and the opportunity to help develop new technologies instead of buying them, all led India toward Israel for its next-generation naval SAM partnership.
The follow-on Barak-8 project involves a land-based system, intended to replace old Russian systems. The DRDO Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be the ‘prime developer’ for the MR-SAM project, which will reportedly have a Rs 2,300 crore (INR 23 billion, $450 million) indigenous component within an estimated Rs 10,000 crore (INR 100 billion, about $1.93 billion) total. The 4-5 year project aims to provide India’s military with 9 advanced air defense squadrons, each with 2 MR-SAM firing units. Each unit, in turn, would consist of a command and control center, an acquisition radar, a guidance radar, and 3 launchers with eight missiles each. The total would therefore be 10 C2 centers, 18 acquisition radars, 18 guidance radars, and 54 launchers, armed with 432 ready-to-fire missiles.
Israel Aerospace Industries will be the key partner, and will contribute most of the applicable technology, just as Russia did for the BrahMos by offering its SS-N-26 Oniks missile as the base platform. As of its approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security in July 2007, MR-SAM surpasses the BrahMos project in size, and may be the largest joint defense development project ever undertaken between India and any other country.
India Defence reports that IAI and its Israeli partners have agreed to transfer all relevant technologies and manufacturing capabilities to India. Indian sources estimate a 4-year, $300 million System Design & Development phase to develop unique system elements, and produce an initial tranche of the land-based missiles.
ORD SAM SA-8
The Times of India adds that:
“The project is crucial because, as highlighted by TOI earlier, there are still “many gaping holes” in India’s radar network and the armed forces only have near-obsolete air defence units like Russian Pechora [DID: upgraded SA-3], OSA-AK [DID: SA-8B, scheduled for interim upgrades], and Igla [DID: SA-16 shoulder-fired] missile systems.
Sources said the MR-SAM project is actually an extension of the ongoing DRDO-Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) project, launched in January 2006 at a cost of $480 million, to develop a supersonic 60-km Barak-NG (new-generation) missile defence system for Navy.”
India Defence and the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz also reported that MR-SAM would be an extension of work done on the Barak-NG deal, but that is not yet certain. The Indian Express quotes DRDO Chief M Natarajan as saying that: “It is still under discussion. We cannot talk more about it…” Most reports, however, place the desired capabilities at 70 km/ 42 mile range (though India Defence says 150 km/ 90 miles) effective range, with 360 degree coverage and the ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously.
June 2007 saw the formal signing of a memorandum of agreement between Indian defense research authorities and prime contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). A formal add-on development contract was expected by early 2008, and there are claims that a $1+ billion contract was signed in March-April 2009 involving India’s DRDO, and the IAI/Tata joint venture Nova Integrated Systems. If so, it would be a significant step in India, which has usually designated state-owned Bharat Dynamics Ltd. as its missile integrator.
India is making efforts to foster a private defense sector that can absorb and benefit from foreign investment and partnerships. If Nova is indeed the final integrator, it would make the MR-SAM an important trailblazer.
Feb 2/10: India increases its Akash SAM buy to 1,000, and will deploy them in the rugged terrain of the northeast as SA-3 replacements. The INR 42.79 billion (about $925 million) contract will buy 6 squadrons of Akash medium-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) from state-run Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). This 750 missile order follows an INR 12.21 billion (about $250 million) order for 2 initial squadrons with 250 missiles total, back in January 2009.
Delivery under this order is expected between 2012-2015, stabilizing Akash as a shorter-range complement to the MR-SAM and affirming the IAF’s confidence. This does not seem likely to endanger the MR-SAM project, but it removes the expansion possibilities that cancellation or a limited 2-squadron Akash program would have created.
Dec 14/09: Defence Minister Shri AK Antony offers a program update, in a written Parliamentary reply to Shri Asaduddin Owaisi:
“Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) has undertaken joint development of missiles, Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM) for Indian navy and Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) for Indian Air Force with M/s Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), Israel. The cost of project for LRSAM is Rs. 2606.02 crore and cost of project for MRSAM is Rs. 10075 crore. Both the missiles being developed are comparable in performance and cost to missiles available in their class in the world market.”
Nov 9/09: Reports surface again that Israel and India have signed a deal for the Barak-8 missile system, which appears to be the Army’s MR-SAM project. Indian reports quote an Israel official, who says that India signed a $1.1 billion contract in April 2009, with delivery expected by 2017.
Islamabad’s The Daily Mail claim that the deal is $1.4 billion, and involves 2,000 Barak-8 missiles for land and naval forces. India has significant industrial offset laws, and The Daily Mail reports that IAI will make offsetting purchases from Tata equal to 33% of the contract. These would almost certainly include Tata trucks for the land-based Barak-8 AMD, as well as purchases and partnerships involving Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL), whose collaboration may also include the development, licensed manufacture, or operation of UAVs, radars, electronic warfare systems and homeland security systems. Reuters | domain-b | PressTV | The Daily Mail, Pakistan.
Nov 8/09: Outlook India, from Jerusalem:
“As India and Israel move to deepen their military ties, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor arrived here on a key visit where he is scheduled to hold talks with top military officials.
General Kapoor will hold discussions with senior defence officials as ‘part of regular ongoing exchanges’ to tighten bilateral defence ties. The three-day visit will also allay fears that the CBI enquiry into controversial [original naval Barak-1] missile deal may disrupt the robust defence ties between the two countries.”
See also: UPI report.
June 10/09: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announces that it has recently signed a contract to “develop and supply the land-based Barak 8 Air and Missile Defense (AMD) System to a foreign customer.” The customer is not named.
May 12/09: Israel Aerospace Industries unveils a full-scale mockup of the Barak 8 surface to air missile (SAM) for the first time at Singapore’s IMDEX 2009 maritime defense show. Barak 8 is co-developed for use by India, and also destined to equip Israel’s next missile frigates. It appears to be an active-homing missile, too, an ability that current American SM-2 missiles lack, but which the SM-6 under development will have. Aviation Week Ares:
“Key features of the 70 km-range Barak 8 missile are an active radar seeker and a dual-pulse solid rocket motor. The first motor pulse propels the weapon through most of its trajectory while the second fires as the missile approaches its target, giving it the energy necessary to defeat evasive action or random weaving. The active seeker means that the missile is autonomous in the endgame, leaving the ship’s radar free to track [DID: illuminate, actually – many passive radars can track hundreds of targets, but illuminate just a couple at a time for targeting] other targets. The missile launcher comprises an eight-round module, three or more of which could make up a typical system.”
March 30/08: An Indian media story carried by DNA alleges that a senior Indian Air Force officer was instrumental in reducing India’s buy of the DRDO’s long Akash missile project from 8 squadrons to 2, and is now doing work related to MR-SAM for Israeli firms following his retirement from service:
“Without naming the officer, Defence Research & Development Organisation chief M Natarajan told a press conference in Bangalore during the Aero India show last month that the officer had slashed his predecessor’s commitment to induct eight squadrons of Akash missiles. The officer had brought the figure down to just two squadrons. Akash has a range of 27km, while MRSAM has a range of about 70km.
A source in the defence ministry confirmed that even for the induction of these two Akash squadrons, the IAF put a condition that the DRDO must first agree to the MRSAM project…. ”[He] killed Akash, blackmailed us to agree to MRSAM, and is now working for them openly.”
These arrangements could reflect corruption, as they did in the USAF’s Darleen Druyun/ Boeing scandal. Or, they could reflect a bureaucratic strong-arm tactic, executed by a customer that saw a large difference in key performance statistics, and accepted the inevitability of some Akash buys but sought to minimize them.
March 26/09:Adnkronos International relays an Asian Age report that India has reached a $1.9 billion equivalent deal to develop MR-SAM. India’s Ministry of Defence has not confirmed the deal, but
”...sources in the department of defence research and development (DRDO) said it was likely to go ahead. The joint development of the 70-kilometre MR-SAM missile project would be carried out by India’s DRDO and the Israeli Aircraft Industries [sic].”
Feb 24/09: A domain-b article quotes senior DRDO scientist Dr Prahlad, re: the MR-SAM project:
“We may take around 12 years but the requirement of the services is that they want it (MR-SAM) fast. The only way to make it four to five years is to partner with a country which has already developed some of the hardware. If they have got some hardware and we have got some knowledge, we can do it in 4-5 years….” Dr Prahalad added that [DRDO’s Akash] did not fit the bill for the MR-SAM project as its range was only 30 km, while the services had posited teh [sic] requirement for a missile system with a range of 70 km.”
Feb 10/09: Top Left Front leaders, Prakash Karat (General Secretary, Communist Party of India – Marxist) and A B Bardhan (General Secretary, Communist Party of India) send a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Opposing the MR-SAM contract to Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), asking the government not to “subvert” india’s indigenous missile effort, which it characterizes as “superior.” The letter also cites the bribery allegations against IAI (see Oct 13/08 entry). Press Trust of India.
Jan 20/09: SR-SAM – Revenge of DRDO? India Defence reports that neither MBDA nor India’s state-run DRDO have given up on their “SR-SAM” short range air defense proposal. Rumors peg it as a combination of DRDO’s Trishul and MBDA’s VL-MICA system, though Trishul’s failure and VL-MICA’s techologies mean that claims regarding Trishul technology are likely to be about saving face as much as anything else.
The “Maitri” LLQRM proposal’s positioning would be directly competitive with RAFAEL’s SPYDER, and VL-MICA is deployable as a mobile system. That could affect SPYDER’s future expansion within the Indian military, and might even affect its prospects if program problems crop up. MICA’s capabilities mean that SR-SAM/Maitri would also be directly competitive with India’s indigenous Akash, and might even impinge on the proposed medium range MR-SAM deal.
Nov 9/08: An India Times article clarifies, noting that the current UPA government has cleared the MR-SAM development project to go ahead, despite the political/legal storm around the navy’s original Barak missile deal.
Oct 13/08: Reports from India indicate that the government has effectively downgraded IAI and RAFAEL’s status as vendors, suspending additional Barak missile purchases, and adding additional high-level approval steps for any new or existing deal involving either company. The moves are a response to ongoing CBI investigations, involving allegations that bribery was used to secure the original Barak ship defense missile deal in 1999-2000. Read “India Downgrades Vendor Status of IAI and RAFAEL” for more.
Aug 22/07: In a written Parliamentary response, Defence Minister Shri AK Antony offers a program update:
“The government has not decided on a joint venture with Israel for the production of missiles. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has earlier entered into a contract with M/s. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Israel to jointly develop a Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) system for the Indian and Israeli Navy in January 2006.”
July 13/07: The MR-SAM project may be about to take the naval Barak-NG deal to a new level. If reports are correct, this Rs 10,000 crore (almost $2.5 billion) deal would see a longer range version of the Barak enter service as India’s medium-range land-based surface-air-missile system. Ha’aretz | Indian Express | The Times of India.
Jan 3/07: A report from the Israeli government places the Barak naval deal at $450 million.
Feb 2/06: Reports surface that India and Israel have finalized their biggest defense development agreement: The state-owned Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) in Hyderabad, and Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) reportedly signed a pact on Jan 27/06 for the joint development and production of a long-range version of the Barak (Heb. “Lightning”) air defense system. A senior scientist of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) reportedly said that the 50/50 shared program has an estimated cost of about $350 million over the next five years. Additional funding will be infused by both parties as needed.
Under this agreement, the DRDL and IAI will develop 6 long-range Barak systems for India’s new Russian warships. Procurement by Israel’s navy could well follow, and India’s Army and Air Force also have projected requirements for medium-long range air defense systems. There are also reports that the Barak and the Barak-8 missiles will be used as phased replacements for the aging Russian OSA-M and Volna RZ-31 missiles still in operation on most Indian warships. Indian Navy personnel pointed to the inherent advantage of the Barak family’s digital systems over the analog computers that guide the Russian missiles. Express India | The Tribune of India | Defense News.
