JERUSALEM – Israel Aerospace Industries and the Indian government’s Defense Research and Development Organization conducted a successful test of MRSAM, a medium-range surface-to-air missile system.
MRSAM was developed jointly by IAI and DRDO in recent years, and they tested the system in India during the last week of December, the Israeli company said.
The system was developed after one of the biggest defense negotiations in Israel’s history. In April 2017, IAI and India signed a $ 1.6 billion contract for the MRSAM system for Indian ground forces. The development involved several Indian companies, such as Bharat Electronics Limited, Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Dynamics Limited, as well as Rafael Advanced Defense Systems from Israel.
The effort is one of the joint ventures that support India’s economic policy “Make in India” for the development of defense, which has had several decades of contracts with Israeli companies to modernize the Indian armed forces.
“The MRSAM Air and Missile Defense System is an innovative, cutting-edge system that has once again proven its advanced capabilities against a variety of threats,” said IAI President and CEO Boaz Levy, who was appointed to the top job in November and has been closely involved in the development of the Barak 8 air defense system. (MRSAM is part of the Barak family.)
“Each test on an air defense system is a complex operational event and the limitations of COVID-19 significantly add to the complexity. This test is yet another testament to the strong partnership between the IAI and India and the two nations, ”added Levy.
The IAI Barak family of air defense systems encompasses several different levels of range, from 35 kilometers to 150 kilometers, and includes the Barak MX, which the company is marketing globally as a single, integrated solution against multiple simultaneous aerial threats. MRSAM fills a medium-range (70 km) gap in India.
The current test “validated all components of the weapon system”, according to the IAI.
“Israeli experts and Indian scientists and officials participated and witnessed the test,” added the company. “The flight test demonstrated different extreme reference scenarios, validating several features of the system.”
The test involved a mobile launcher and a multimode radar. IAI subsidiary Elta Systems manufactures multimode radar, the same type of radar used by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. Traveling to and from the test site in India, and then back to Israel, was a challenge due to the pandemic, requiring participants to be quarantined and to work in capsules.
MRSAM is used by the Air Force and Navy of India. The naval version, called LRSAM, is based on Barak 8 and was sold as part of a $ 777 million contract with Indian state-owned Bharat Electronics Limited in 2018 for seven Navy ships. Barak 8 had its first operational sea-based interception in 2015 and proved effective on land in 2016. It can be used against threats at sea, like the Russian Yakhont missile, and the IAI says the land-based system could face a variety of threats, including warplanes, missiles and UAVs.
The Israeli company has not revealed how many systems the 2017 multi-billion dollar business will involve. The size of the Indian Army, the country’s landmass and recent clashes have led to accelerated arms purchases. Sales of Israel’s Barak to the Indian Navy began with one ship, followed by seven and five more.