Israel in rush to strengthen India's war machine

Israel's defence ministry director-general Amos Yaron kicked off the talks with a string of meetings with his Indian counterpart Ajay Prasad, naval chief Madhavendra Singh and army chief N.C. Vij on the sidelines of a curtailed visit to New Delhi by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Indian defence ministry sources told AFP that the ongoing talks focussed on the purchase of surveillance equipment and assault rifles India needs to raise "lethal platoons" in each of its infantry battalions.

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India a week ago set aside 65 million dollars for the formation of modern platoons to counter militancy, especially in the insurgency wracked zone of Kashmir.

At the same time it has stepped up efforts to buy hardware to monitor cross-border infiltration from adjoining Pakistan.

The officials said the ongoing talks touched on India's growing concerns about the inflow of Islamic militants from Pakistan-administered Kashmir which have sparked growing bloodletting in the disputed Himalayan territory.

"India is also looking at joint production of unmanned aerial vehicles, night vision devices for its battle tanks and unobtrusive surveillance technology from Israel for border management," a highly-placed source said.

"We are also keen to acquire 10 Barak missiles for the navy and a number of Arrow missiles from Israel which will form the cornerstone of India's air defence and give a lethal edge to our capabilities," he said, citing from the agenda of the talks.

Israeli officials overnight told AFP that it could be years before New Delhi acquires the Israeli-designed Arrow missile because of US concerns about its emerging ties with Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India.

"India and Israel have already discussed the anti-ballistic missile's price tag although both are awaiting a nod from Washington," the Indian source said, adding the missile system figured in Wednesday's talks.

"We have already bought Israeli Green Pine radar which tracks incoming ballistic missiles and locks the Arrow onto the target and hence we see no reason why the US should hold back its export to India," the source said.

India and Israel, however, have made a fair amount of progress in clinching a billion-dollar deal for the supply in the near future by Tel Aviv to New Delhi of three Phalcon AWACS radar systems, officials said.

The Indian military, with an annual defence budget of around 14 billion dollars, is also seeking electronic warfare (EW) systems to arm seven of its frontline ships.

"Israel is already upgrading our MiG-21 aircraft and artillery systems and the talks on the EW and the electronic sensors for our borders have progressed well," the source said.

Russia's MiG manufacturers have sub-contracted to an Israeli firm the project to revamp India's vintage warjets, which have earned the sobriquet "flying coffins" because of their dismal safety records.