India Buys Radar System from Tel Aviv

10/10/2003| IslamWeb

India, Israel and Russia have signed an agreement to sell Israel's sophisticated Phalcon early-warning radar system to Delhi, Indian officials say. Defence analysts say the 1bn US dollars Phalcon system will give India a greater edge in conventional weaponry over its regional rivals, Pakistan and China. In August, the United States lifted its objections to the sale of the Phalcon to India. Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed immediately called the deal "worrying" but said the country was capable of defending itself. "We believe that such defence deals will upset the conventional military balance," he told the AP news agency. **Communications hub*** The Phalcon deal was signed on Friday by India's senior defence official, Ajay Prasad, an Israeli defence ministry official, Yasi Ben Hanan, and Mikhail Denisov from Russia's State Committee for Military Technical Co-operation. Israel and India have been discussing the sale for several years and contract prices are still to be finalised. Ariel Sharon visited Delhi earlier this month, paving the way for the signing of the deal and marking increasingly friendly ties between the two nations. The Phalcon system is installed in the nose of the Ilyushin-76 and then acts as the hub of a communications system to spot enemy planes and missiles within a range of hundreds of miles. The Phalcon also carries equipment that monitors, analyses and decodes enemy radio transmissions. Israel's deputy prime minister, Yosef Lapid, last month assured India that Phalcon would provide "effective surveillance". Analysts say the US decision not to block the sale may be a signal that it wants to encourage a strategic US-Israel-India defence axis. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Phalcon radar system.