WASHINGTON, 15 June 2003 — The export of Israeli weapons and military services to India has made this tiny Mideast country one of the world’s top arms suppliers. In 2002 transfers of Israeli defense technology and know-how totaled $4.18 billion, ranking it fifth only to the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Japan in weapons exports. The previous year, Israel’s arms exports totaled just $2.5 billion.
India has become one of Israel’s biggest customers in recent years, and I will likely become the top customer now that the United States has decided to drop its objection to $1 billion sale of the Israeli “Phalcon” airborne early-warning system to New Delhi.
The Phalcon is a close copy of the US E-3 “Sentry,” an airborne warning and control system (AWACS) that provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications to battle commanders. The Israeli version of AWACS uses sophisticated Israeli radar carried aboard a Russian-made cargo plane.
Three years ago, Washington instructed Israel to rescind a similar Phalcon deal to China, claiming the state-of-the-art system might be re-exported by Beijing to nations unfriendly to the United States. Many arms control officials believe this possibility still exists.
According to a recent article in the Jerusalem Post, Israel has been hired by India to train four battalions of nearly 3,000 Indian soldiers for specialized anti-insurgency strikes. Experts quoted in the newspaper say New Delhi’s recent reliance on Israel for combat soldier expertise is due to its failure to adequately repulse Pakistani border incursions and because of a deadly suicide attack last year by terrorist infiltrators on the Indian Parliament.
The Israeli newspaper notes that in conjunction with the deal for counterinsurgency training services, India has signed a $30 million contract with Israel Military Industries (IMI) for 3,400 Tavor assault rifles and 200 Galil sniper rifles, as well as night vision and laser range finding and targeting equipment.
“The purchase seems to demonstrate a broadening of the defense trade relationship beyond Indian purchase of Israeli high-tech electronic systems. For decades, New Delhi has bought most of its air force and army hardware from Russia,” says a recent report by the Tel Aviv-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a conservative defense think tank whose board of directors includes many of President George W. Bush’s top national security advisors.
According to JINSA, India has had to significantly boost its defense budget in order to finance all its new Israeli arms purchases: By 2010 New Delhi’s annual military budget is expected to reach $100 billion.
Overall Indo-Israeli trade has also seen a huge increase, climbing from about $250 million annually to more than $1.15 billion in 2002, with the exchange of arms seeing the most rapid growth.
In addition to IMA, another state-run arms conglomerate — Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) — has signed lucrative technology and training contracts with the Indian Air Force (IAF). JINSA reports that negotiations are also under way for Israel to provide state-of-the-art fire control systems and thermal imagers for the Indian Army’s Russian-made T-72 tank fleet.
In February, the International Herald Tribune reported that India plans to purchase two Israeli Elta Green Pine long-range radar systems, a component of the “Arrow” Ballistic Missile Defense System.
Begun in 1988, the joint US-Israel Arrow missile program has had over 75 percent of its development money coming from the US Department of Defense.
With the lifting of sanctions on the Phalcon sale, strategic talks between Israel, India and the United States may clear the way for the transfer of a complete Arrow missile defense system to New Delhi.
According to JINSA, a 2001 review by the US Department of Defense concluded that the “defensive nature” of the Arrow system exempts it from sales restrictions imposed by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), an international agreement designed to stop the spread of offensive missile technology.
