As NATO races to supply Ukraine before Trump takes office, Europe is struggling to touch two percent of its GDP on defence expenditure while Russia plans to spend more than 32 percent of its national budget on its military.
Rafael’s systems on exhibit include I-Derby Missiles, RecceLite Reconnaissance Pods, Litening Advanced Targeting Pods, the SPICE Family of Air-to-Surface Missiles, the SPIKE Missile Family, and the BNET Tactical Communications system.
India’s defence procurement continues to raise more questions than answers, points out Hemant Shivakumar, with the uncertainty over the order of Spike Anti Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) appearing to be the latest casualty to the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Rafael’s Colonel Joseph Horowitz explains the capabilities of the Derby and Python systems at the Singapore Airshow 2016 and gives us updates on seeker technology and trials with India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
Saab and Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd have announced plans to set up a joint venture for the production of the RBS 70 VSHORAD and Bamse SRSAM systems in India.
The four-km range MMP, which stands for Missile Moyenne Portée, or Medium Range Missile, is a new development for the French Army and has only been test-fired for the first time, earlier this month.
The Indo-US Defense Policy Group meet to be held in Washington DC this week comes shortly after a perceived snub to the US offer to co-produce Javelin ATGMs with the Indian order for Israeli Spike ATGMs.
BAE Systems is to sell its stake in Defence Land Systems India (DLSI) to Mahindra Defence Systems less than three weeks after the two issued a statement announcing a strategic review of their joint venture.
This is how the French shipyard Chantier Naval Couach marketed its Fast Interceptor Craft to the Indian Navy. The navy ordered 15 of the vessels and the first three were inducted last month.
An Indian Air Force (IAF) officer said, “While it can be seen as funny – perhaps a humorous parody, it’s likely to hurt the sensitivities of many people. Maybe Rafael should have thought of this before producing something like this.”
The promotional video was produced by the Israeli arms company Rafael and aired at Aero India 2009 held in Bangalore last month. The video has been derided by some commentators as badly produced and virtually all consider it invariably funny. The StratPost story has made news with the New York Times, with Ronald Mackey writing about it in the blog The Lede, not to mention in other commentaries and observations on the internet.
Israeli arms firm Rafael displayed a Bollywood-style dance number featuring Israeli artists in full Bollywood costume singing in English about the potential for the Indo-Israeli defense trade relationship on large screen televisions at their stall at Aero India 2009 recently.
