by Aravind Kumar G

In a strong message to a trusted defence partner like Israel but to all others as well, the Defence Ministry has officially cancelled a $500 million missile deal with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems when the Israeli side apparently expressed reservations in ensuring full transfer of technology as per the provisions of the 'Make in India' initiative

The Defence Ministry has cancelled a $500 million missile deal with Israel to protect India’s indigenous missile program, a report said. The deal for the Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) for the Army was expected to be signed soon with Israel for its Spike ATGM.

Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, the company that manufactures Spike ATGM, had entered into a joint venture with an Indian company for missile production in the anticipation of the deal. A facility was also inaugurated in August 2017 in Hyderabad for this.

Defence sources are of view that the decision to scrap the deal was taken to protect the indigenous program as it was thought a foreign ATGM would adversely impact DRDO’s attempts. The Indian defence ministry has been strongly pushing for transfer of technology in procuring various weapons and other platforms from foreign defence majors as part of its broad policy initiative to encourage domestic defence industry.

"DRDO has successfully produced the Nag and Anamika ATGMs. It is confident about providing the Army with an MPATGM of 3rd generation missile technology, at par with Spike, within three to four years. It won’t also need any transfer of technology,” a source told IDN.

Spike ATGM missile is a third generation Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided missile. It has a range of 2.5 km and can be used during the day and at night. It is a top attack and fire and forget missile system, which betters India’s current systems with its day-night capability. Army is using the second gen, Konkurs and Milan 2T.

Several defence journalists have already started sounding the alarm bells, baiting the current government has become a hobby for such partisan journalists, however, if one looks back at DRDO's antecedents, the weapons developer has delivered critical advanced weapon systems to the armed forces when foreign suppliers have refused to transfer technology to their Indian counterparts. However, the Indian weapons manufacturers would be able to deliver the weapon system in 3-4 years both quantitatively and as well qualitatively without even a transfer of technology.

Arvind Kumar G is the science reporter for IDN