Barak-8 Missile System a ‘Cash Cow’ For Israeli Aerospace Industries: IAI CEO

Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) expects new orders from India and several other customers for the Barak-8 missile system, considered the single most valuable defence export from Israel.

With a US$2.6 in aggregate contracts from India, the Barak-8 Missile has become a ‘cash cow’ for its manufacturer, IAI Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Joseph Weiss has said.

“The Barak-8 became a cash cow for IAI over the past year, following a string of huge deals with the Indian defense establishment with an aggregate total of $2.6 billion. The (defence) deal is the largest in IAI's history and the history of Israel, and is already reflected in IAI's results for the first half of the year,” the CEO said in an October 17 interview with Israeli business newspaper, Globes.

"All the deals in India are just for the systems. We'll talk about the missiles themselves at some point. There will be more deals around the Barak-8,” he said adding, “right now; we're in negotiations with various parties for Barak 8 systems that could bring very nice additional orders. We're at the crest of a very aggressive business campaign to leverage this success."

The Barak-8 is an Indo-IAI venture based on the original Barak 1 missile and features a more advanced seeker, alongside range extensions that will move it closer to medium range naval systems like the US-made SM-2 Standard. India refers to the Ship Launch Version of the Barak-8 as the LR-SAM and the MR-SAM  is the Land Launch Version of Barak-8 Missile system.

A part of the project’s development has taken place in India, including cooperation in developing the homing system.

In February this year, the Indian cabinet committee on security had approved the procurement of 40 units of the Barak-8 MR-SAM system worth about US$2.5 billion, the Mail Today paper had reported.

In addition, IAI had said in May this year it has won an additional $630 million contract to supply the Barak-8 LR-SAM for four ships of the Indian navy. The contract is to be carried out in collaboration with India’s state-owned Bharat Electronics.

In addition to India, Azerbaijan has confirmed purchasing the Barak-8 system. It had test-fired the Barak-8 missile system in May 2016 before committing to the purchase. In 2014, the Polish Navy evaluated the Barak 8 missile system for potential use in their ships.

Several Navies in Asia-Pacific and South America are said to be looking at the Barak-8 system.

The Barak-8 is claimed to be effective against a wide variety of incoming threats including cruise and ballistic missiles, fighter jets and UAVs.