The Python-5 is currently the most capable and one of the most advanced air-to-air missiles in the world. The Beyond-Visual-Range missile, is capable of "lock-on after launch" (LOAL), and has full-sphere/all-direction (including rearward) attack ability. India operates the Python-5 system
by Charu Sudan Kasturi
New Delhi: India and Israel are trying to sew up defence projects that New Delhi can showcase as gains under its Make in India initiative ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landmark visit there next month.
Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, also the chairman of the chiefs of the staff committee - the senior-most of the country's three military heads - is visiting Israel for meetings with the bosses of that country's military, less than a month before Modi's trip.
No previous Indian Prime Minister has visited Israel, and Modi is expected to sharpen the signalling of his government's belated recognition of ties with that country by avoiding a trip to Palestine. President Pranab Mukherjee and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj had visited both Israel and Palestine during trips to the troubled region over the past two years.
But India and Israel are also keen to use Modi's visit to break the image of a relationship that hinges on New Delhi's purchase of weapons from the Jewish state, as The Telegraph had reported on April 12. Success in projecting the manufacture of Israeli weapons systems in India will help, officials said. India and Israel are mulling the development of Israeli anti-tank guided missiles in India, they added.
"Since the renewal of formal diplomatic relations in 1992, defence cooperation has been one of the main pillars of bilateral engagement between the two nations," a defence ministry statement said. "Defence relationship between the two countries, over the years, has matured into one of mutual trust and confidence."
Lanba is scheduled to meet Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Chief of the General Staff, Israeli Defence Force. But he will also meet Israel's Navy chief Maj. Gen. Eli Sharvit, Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel and ground forces commander, Maj. Gen. Kobi Barak. The Indian Navy chief is also expected to visit the port of Haifa. Three Indian Navy ships had visited the port in May.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) - that country's leading aerospace technology firm - had in April inked Israel's biggest-ever defence deal, worth $2 billion (Rs 13,000 crore) to supply surface-to-air missiles to the Indian Army and navy.
The IAI is separately expected to sell 66 surveillance and radar systems, and 10 Heron drones to India soon. India, officials said, is keen to clinch Make in India components of these deals.
Lanba's visit is the latest in a series of trips by senior Indian ministers, bureaucrats, diplomats and military officials to Israel ahead of Modi's visit.
Late in March, the chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshall Arup Raha, visited Israel. The ministers for agriculture, energy, water resources and sanitation have travelled to Israel over the past two months, as have national security adviser Ajit Doval and foreign secretary S. Jaishankar
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2017/06/before-israel-trip-make-in-india-push.html
