India To Purchase $1.5 Billion Worth Spike, Barak-8 Missile Systems

India is expected to finalize two deals with Israel for purchase of the anti-tank missiles and a naval air defense weapon system in couple of months, as part of $250 billion modernization plan.

The deals worth $1.5 billion for Spike anti-tank missiles for India’s army and Barak-8 air defense missiles for its navy are expected to be finalized in the next two months, before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to Tel Aviv in July, Economic Times reported citing a source. The delivery of the 8,000 missiles will begin two years after the contracts are signed. 

The deals announcement follows transactions finalized last week to obtain medium- and long-range surface-to-air missiles worth $2 billion for the Indian Army from IAI.

The purchase of Spike missiles was approved by India’s Defence Acquisition Council in October 2014 and the Barak-8 purchase proposal was given the go-ahead in a meeting on April 3 this year, the report added.