Government clears proposal to procure Barak surface-to-air missiles for Navy

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on 3 April 2017 approved the procurement of a fresh batch of Barak surface-to-surface missiles for naval warships. This procurement will help to enhance India’s maritime capability.

During the meeting held in New Delhi, DAC approved capital acquisition totalling over Rs 860 crore, including for the purchase of Barak missiles. During the meeting, Jaitley, who chaired the meet also took stock of other procurement proposals and issued directions for close monitoring and expeditious clearance of pending capital acquisition cases.

As per reports, the missiles will be procured under Buy Global category from Rafael Advance Defense Systems Limited of Israel at an approximate cost of around 500 crore rupees.

Barak missiles

Barak missiles are an Indian-Israeli surface-to-air missile (SAM). It was designed to defend against any type of airborne threat like aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs. It can be used to defend against threats of cruise missiles and combat jets. At present, Barak missiles are installed on the most of the front-line warships, including the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.

Approval for other deal

Other deals for procurement include expendable Bathy thermograph systems for the Navy. The system that will help the Navy to detect temperature changes under water will be procured under as a repeat order with ‘buy global’ categorization through the foreign military sales route from the US. The systems will be procured at an expense of Rs 311 crore to counter mines in the sea.

Defence Acquisition Council (DAC): DAC is Defence Ministry's highest decision making body for capital acquisition. It was the first meeting of the DAC after Jaitley took additional charge as Defence Minister following sudden exit of Manohar Parrikar. Parrikar resigned from his office to take charge as the Chief Minister of Goa.