Why in News:
● To further advance the bilateral defence cooperation, India and Israel have agreed to
form a task force to formulate a comprehensive 10-year roadmap to identify new areas
of cooperation.
● This was agreed at the 15th India-Israel Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on
bilateral defence cooperation
○ The JWG is the apex body between the Defence Ministries of the two
countries to comprehensively review and guide all aspects of bilateral
defence cooperation.
Indo-Israel Defence Cooperation
● During the Sino-Indian War of 1962, the two countries initiated strategic cooperation.
● In the 1965 war against Pakistan, Israel supplied India with M-58 160-mm mortar
ammunition.
● For almost two decades, Israel has been one of India’s top four arms suppliers.
● Over the years, the Indian armed forces have received a variety of Israeli military
systems, including Phalcon AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) and
Heron, Searcher-II, and Harop drones, as well as Barak anti-missile defence systems
and Spyder quick-reaction anti-aircraft missile systems.
○ “Searcher” is a multi-mission tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be
used for surveillance, target acquisition, artillery modification, and damage
assessment.
○ BARAK is a low-range air defence interceptor that can be used as a
surface-to-air missile.
○ Spike: These are 4th generation Anti-Tank Missiles with a range of up to 4
kilometres and the ability to fire and forget.
○ Heron is a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
system that is primarily used for strategic purposes.
● The acquisitions also includes a slew of Israeli missiles and precision-guided munitions,
like Python and Derby air-to-air missiles to Crystal Maze and Spice-2000 bombs.
● Apart from Israeli arms sales to India, the scope of defence cooperation has expanded to
cover other fields such as space, counter-terrorism, cyber security, and
information sharing.
● According to a survey by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),
Israel is India’s third largest exporter of defence products, behind Russia and the
United States.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-israel-adopt-measures-to-strengthen-mili
tary-ties/article37240854.ece