Indo-Israeli Barak-8 SAM Systems Enters Service With IDF

Following successful trials late last year, IAI’s Barak-8 medium-range surface-to-air missile is being delivered to customers, and is also now fielded with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). The company does not discuss its customers, but acknowledges that the missile has been procured by Israel and India, plus others. Non-Israeli sources state that the Barak-8 has been adopted by the Indian Navy, which already employs the Barak-1, for service aboard its latest frigates, destroyers and aircraft carriers.

Following on from the Barak-1 naval point defense missile, Barak-8 is an all-new weapon. “We started from scratch,” Eili Behar, IAI’s director of ground-based air and missile defense has said. “We needed the most advanced missile to tackle the latest challenges.” As a result, the Barak-8 incorporates a range of advanced features. The missile is guided by an active RF seeker that is equally capable at short and long ranges, and also allows very low-level engagements. It is intended to provide both point and area defense capabilities, and to perform simultaneous multi-target engagements in a saturated threat environment.

The Barak-8 has a two-way data link that uplinks target information and also downlinks missile status. This allows operators to know if it is functioning properly and if it has received uplinked commands. In an air defense scenario this is vital information because if a missile is not behaving correctly it allows a second interceptor to be launched immediately, rather than after the initial launch has been observed to fail. The downlink function also aids post-mission debriefing.

Instead of working through the guidance radar, the data link is separate. As well as releasing resources from the radar, the separate link allows the Barak-8 to be used with many different types of radar. IAI’s Elta division produces a number of radars that could be used for Barak-8 guidance, from fast-spinning ground-based radars to larger ship-based systems.

IAI (Chalet 210, Static A9) has developed Barak-8 to fulfill both land- and ship-based functions with the same missile and launcher hardware, and the same command and control functions and data links. In a land-based scenario the system can be used to defend a large footprint with low manpower requirements by deploying several launchers that can be networked either by wired or wireless connections. The eight-round launcher can be deployed on a truck or trailer, elevating to the vertical for missile launch. The same launchers can also be accommodated on a wide range of naval vessels.

The missile itself comes in two versions. The medium-range weapon is the baseline missile, offering a range capability from less than two miles to at least 43 miles. Engagement upper ceiling has not been disclosed, but the missile has been proven against very low-flying targets such as sea-skimming anti-ship missiles. IAI has also developed an extended-range version that employs the same hardware, but adds a booster rocket to extend maximum range to around 93 miles.

A number of successful firing trials were conducted in November 2014, resulting in some body-to-body kills to illustrate the engagement accuracy of the missile. The Barak-8 is fitted with a 44-pound warhead to ensure damage or destruction in near-miss engagements. IAI has not commented on whether the Barak-8 has yet been tested at sea, although other sources have reported that it was due for trials from an Indian Navy vessel.

Barak 8 surface - to - air missile to be test - fired this month

The state-run Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) will series-produce the 70 km-range Barak-8, with 32 missiles to be initially fitted onto INS Kolkata. 

The missile had undergone a successful test in Israel last November. (Source: Reuters photo) India and Israel are likely to test fire this month the long-range surface-to-air Barak 8 missile, jointly developed by the two countries, which can act as a potent shield against incoming missiles, aircraft and drones. If the test to be done in Israel is successful, another would be conducted on board an Indian ship before September. This, according to defence sources, will pave the way for installation of Barak 8 missiles, an upgraded version of Barak systems both the countries use, on board Indian warships.

The missile had undergone a successful test in Israel last November. Though initially the missile was to be fired on board an Indian ship, defence sources said it would now be done on board an Israeli ship first. “Following the last test, the Indian Navy had recommended certain changes which have been incorporated. The coming test will check whether the changes are successful. Following this, a test would be done on board an Indian ship,” the sources said. The Indian ship likely to be used for testing is INS Kolkata.The launchers and radars to track the missile are already in place. The test will be conducted against an incoming missile by the Navy. The missile is being jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, India’s DRDO, Israel’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, Elta Systems, Rafael and other companies. The state-run Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) will series-produce the 70 km-range Barak-8, with 32 missiles to be initially fitted onto INS Kolkata. Barak 8 is being considered to be a major asset for Indian Navy because it would add a potent system designed to destroy any anti-ship missile launched by Pakistani or Chinese navy. Key to Barak 8’s ability to intercept incoming missiles is Israel-made MF-STAR radar system which is capable of simultaneously tracking hundreds of airborne targets to arange of more than 250 kilometers.

India and Israel's Secret Love Affair

The Indo-Israeli defense relationship is once again in focus following Benjamin Netanyahu's "sky is the limit" comment after meeting Narendra Modi in New York back in September—and especially after the signing of the long-delayed $144 million deal on Barak I missiles in October. Another milestone was crossed in November when New Delhi and Tel Aviv successfully tested the Barak 8 anti-missile system—a joint project developing an aerial defense system for naval vessels. Moreover, since Modi took power this summer, New Delhi has purchased a whopping $662 million worth of Israeli arms.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu & Indian PM Narendra Modi.

So is the Indo-Israeli strategic relationship likely to be fundamentally different now that Modi is in power?

Although Indo-Israeli ties are undoubtedly on the upswing, history suggests that Modi is not likely to have a fundamental impact on the substance of the bilateral relationship.

During the early part of the Cold War, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru briefly considered inviting Israel to the 1955 Bandung Conference, but eventually decided against doing so in order to appease Arab and Middle Eastern states. While this carved out India’s Cold War foreign policy of opposing Israel and siding with Palestine, New Delhi’s military ties with Tel Aviv, however modest, began by the 1960s. Not only did Israel provide military assistance to India in its wars in 1962, 1965 and 1971, but Tel Aviv was also one of the first countries to recognize Bangladesh following India’s victory in its 1971 war against Pakistan. When the traditionally pro-Israel and Hindu, right-wing, Jan Sangh-led government was briefly in power from 1977 to 1979, Israeli foreign minister Moshe Dayan paid a secret visit to New Delhi in August 1977 to further expand bilateral ties.

While Prime Minister Indira Gandhi mostly maintained her father’s pro-Palestine position, her son and successor Rajiv Gandhi met his Israeli counterpart in September 1985 during the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting, which was the first such open meeting between the prime ministers of the two states. Indian concerns over the fast-advancing Pakistani nuclear program are believed to have facilitated these improved ties. However, it was not until 1992—after the end of the Cold War and India’s 1991 economic liberalization—that New Delhi formally established diplomatic relations with Israel. Nevertheless, it is important to note that even without formal diplomatic relations, Indo-Israeli military ties existed during the Cold War. These ties have certainly increased in volume since the 1990s.

However, a constant theme in the history of Indo-Israeli relations has been that their public visibility has been conditioned on which party holds powers in New Delhi. Specifically, each time a Hindu nationalist coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in New Delhi, the visibility of the bilateral ties increases, but not the substance. On the other hand, the Congress Party has tended to downplay India’s ties to the Jewish state whenever it holds power.

In this sense, the Modi government’s proximity to Israel harkens back to the previous BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. In 2000, for instance, BJP leader L.K. Advani was the first senior Indian minister to visit Israel since the 1992 establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. An Indo-Israeli joint working group on terrorism was formed that year, and in 2003, then national security advisor Brajesh Mishra delivered a speech at the American Jewish Committee underlining the potential for cooperation among India, Israel and the United States in fighting Islamist extremism.

Once the Congress Party–led United Progressive Alliance government came to power in 2004, however, Indo-Israeli ties mostly disappeared from the headlines. This was by design; in 2010, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs refused to allow Congress Party MP Mani Shankar Aiyar to ask questions about the Indo-Israeli defense relationship in parliament on the grounds that it pertained to a “state secret.” At other points during the UPA’s tenure, Israel and India openly clashed. This was the case, for instance, when Indian president Pratibha Patil called on Israel to withdraw from Golan Heights as a primary condition for peace. Despite this public bickering, Indo-Israeli strategic ties remained rock solid. In fact, in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, India’s defense purchases from Israel increased so much that Tel Aviv briefly replaced Russia as New Delhi’s largest defense supplier in 2009.

In other words, the key difference between the secular Congress Party-led coalition and the one led by the Hindu nationalist BJP lies in their public-relations management of the bilateral relationship. The former publicly downplays strategic ties between India and Israel, while the latter loudly champions its defense and strategic cooperation with Tel Aviv. Beyond these semantics, however, the Congress Party and the BJP maintain largely similar ties with the Jewish state.

Not surprisingly, then, as Narendra Modi prepared to take office, think tanks in Washington and New Delhi predicted that Indo-Israeli relations would once again become more visible. After all, the Modi government’s anti-Islam, anti-Pakistan, anti-terrorism and pro-business positions are compatible with its public enunciation of deeper defense, strategic and economic ties with Tel Aviv. Furthermore, given his historic win and the weak and fractured nature of the opposition, Narendra Modi is nearly able to single-handedly coordinate the future direction of India’s foreign policy. This allows him and his government to magnify Indo-Israeli relations in public.

Which isn’t to say that Indo-Israeli ties aren’t currently expanding, as they are and are likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. New Delhi is currently Israel’s largest arms customer, and talks are underway for the conclusion of a free-trade agreement that would increase bilateral trade many times over.

In addition, Israel has hailed India as a strategic partner in Asia, while China as merely a trading partner. With Modi entrenched in power, and strategic interests aligned, we are poised to see India and Israel expand on their already-strong relationship.

Source: TNI