India signs major defense deal with Israel and Russia

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 10, 2003

India signs major defense deal with Israel and Russia

India Friday concluded a major defense deal with Israel and Russia for the manufacture of Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS), Phalcon, for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

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India Friday concluded a major defense deal with Israel and Russia for the manufacture of Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS), Phalcon, for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The deal to mount Israeli Phalcon surveillance radar on a Russian IL-76 platform was signed by Indian Defense Secretary AjayPrasad and officials from Israel and Russia.

The Memorandum of Principles and Order of Cooperation broadly defined the responsibilities of the three parties in the development of the AWACS aircraft for the Indian Air Force.

Under the deal, Israel will buy the IL-76 aircraft from Uzbekistan and send them to Russia to be mounted with high-powered engines.

Defense Ministry sources said, after the structural modifications, these aircraft will go to Israel where the state-of-art avionics and the Phalcon radars will be installed. The complete aircraft mounted with the AWACS will then be delivered to India.

The sources said that price negotiations were still underway, which is estimated to cost around 1 billion US dollars.

As a start, India would bid for the delivery of three of such mounted AWACS systems.

Chief of the Air Staff Marshal S Krishnaswamy recently said that though no time-frame could be given on the delivery, the Indian Air Force would hopefully receive the first batch of the AWACS by the end of 2006.

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