India-Israel joint venture missile LRSAM successfully test fired in Israel

Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LRSAM), the missile co-developed by India and Israel, was successfully test-fired on 10 November 2014 from a range in Israel. LRSAM is called Barak 8 missile in Israel.

The missile successfully intercepted a manoeuvring air-breathing target mimicking an attacking combat aircraft. The test also validated all the elements related to the naval and land-based variants of the missile including the phased array radar, battle management system, communications and the interceptor.

The test fire was carried by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in the presence of DRDO scientists and officials of the Indian Armed Forces. DRDO chief and Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister Dr Avinash Chander witnessed the test along with IAI President Joseph Weiss and other top officials of the Israel Defence Forces.

The successful test marked a milestone in bilateral cooperation of the two countries in developing advanced weapon systems.
According to the DRDO sources, LRSAM will be deployed on the newly commissioned INS Kolkata, which had to be inducted without the weapon system due to delays in testing. It would also be deployed on other naval ships including recently commissioned INS Kamrota.

Background
India and Israel in January 2007 signed a 330 million US dollar deal to co-develop an all new generation of the Barak SAM, known as the Barak II. The venture is a tripartite one, between the DRDO, the Indian Navy, and Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI). The missile is referred to as the LRSAM in Indian Government literature.

It has been designed to counter a wide variety of air-borne threats, such as anti-ship missiles, aircraft, UAVs and drones as well as supersonic cruise missiles.