31 January, 2019: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has signed an agreement worth $93 million with the Indian Navy and Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) for provision of Naval MRSAM (Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile) systems.
IAI will provide India with complementary systems for the air defence system (ADS). It also involves follow up orders for a range of maintenance and other services for various sub-systems of IAI’s advanced MSRAM ADS, according to the contract.
The MRSAM is an air-defence system used by Israel’s navy and India’s naval, air and ground forces. The system provides broad and topical defence against a range of assault air, marine and ground threats.
The Indian navy and IAI collaborated with each other for an interception test aboard INS Chennai, which assessed for the first time potential collaboration between ships. The interception test was a huge success and it demonstrated how the operational force of the defence system can be doubled regionally, rather than topically.
MRSAM has been developed by IAI with the help of Israel’s Ministry of defense, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), RAFAEL, IAI’s Elta and additional industries in India and Israel. It consists of several key state-of-the-art systems, including a digital radar, command and control, launchers, and interceptors with advanced homing seekers.