Even though South Block is at pains to stress that there are no military deals during PM Narendra Modi’s three-day trip to Jerusalem, defence and homeland security ties continue to be the cement that binds India and Israel together. The ISTAR has been used in Afghanistan since the past decade, while Heron TP with multi-mission payload offer was already discussed with then defence secretary G Mohan Kumar during his visit to Israel on April 24-26, 2017. The Heron TP has been shown to visiting Indian defence and external affairs ministry officials though the UAV will have to be manufactured as it is not available off the shelf. Already the two sides have a robust institutionalised mechanism to share data on terrorists and hostile countries. Later, Israeli companies armed Indian multi-role fighters like Miraage-2000 with Litening pods to paint the Pakistani targets for a laser guided bomb attacks.

Source: Hindustan Times July 03, 2017 04:07 UTC