India supplying rockets and UAVs to Israel – report

India is manufacturing rockets and UAVs for Israel for use in the Gaza war, “Al Jazeera” reports.

Zain Hussain, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told Qatar-based Al Jazeera that cooperation between India and Israel is based mainly on rockets. According to SIPRI the Indian company Premier Explosives manufactures solid propellants, which are a significant part of the rocket motors of Israeli weapons. Taking into account that India participates in the production of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Barak air defense system, it is not impossible that these are components required for the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 air defense systems.

In addition the Palestinian Quds News Network has presented the remains of a missile found in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip with ‘Made in India’ written on its tangled parts.

Premier Explosives executive director T. Chowdary told investors at the end of March that Israeli orders had brought an exponential jump in sales. “We are happy to announce that we have highest ever quarterly revenue,” he said. Chowdary added that the company had also started exporting explosives.

Cooperation between India and Israel is not limited to just missiles and their components, and IAI is not the only large Israeli defense company that operates in the subcontinent. In December 2018, Elbit Systems launched a collaboration with the defense and aerospace arm of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of Haifa Port. As part of the cooperation, Hermes 900 and 450 drones are manufactured, among other things. During the war, Hezbollah intercepted two drones of each model, while the price of the Hermes 900, according to foreign reports, can reach $6.85 million dollars each while the Hermes 450 costs $2 million.

SIPRI’s Hussain told “Al Jazeera,”https://en.globes.co.il/en/”The production of Hermes drones is as important for India as it is for Israel. For Israel, it means they have a factory outside of the country. For India, it’s about technology transfer, so that it can also produce drones based on the Israeli model.” Indeed, this year India has launched its Drishti 10 Starliner, based on the Hermes, the first UAV made in India for medium height with long endurance.

Big consignments transported by ship

On May 16, Spain refused to allow a ship conveying explosives from India bound for Israel to dock in the country. According to a Spanish minister the Marianne Danica had requested to anchor in Cartagena on May 21. The Marianne Danica, which was sailing under a Danish flag, had left the Indian port of Chennai on April 8 and according to Spanish newspaper “El Pais” was carrying 27 tons of explosives. The ship would not have been anywhere near Spanish waters were it not for the attacks in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebels, meaning it had been rerouted around Africa to Gibraltar and the Mediterranean.

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The day before the Marianne Danica had been refused anchorage in Spain, the container ship the Borkum, carrying the Antigua and Barboda flag turned back shortly before sailing into Cartagena where pro-Palestinian demonstrators and left-wing European Members of Parliament were protesting, having sent a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez demanding that the ship not be allowed to dock in Spain due to suspicions that it was carrying weapons to Israel. Before the Spanish government took a decision on the matter, the Borkum canceled its call into Cartagena and continued onto Koper in Slovenia.

According to “Al Jazeera,” this ship too, which had also set sail from Chennai contained arms bound for Ashdod. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators claimed that the Borkum contained 20 tons of rocket engines, 12.5 tons of rockets with explosive charges, 1,500 kilograms of explosives and 740 kilograms of charges and propellants for cannons. “Al Jazeera” claimed that a confidentiality clause specified that all employees were prohibited from naming IMI Systems, which was acquired by Elbit Systems in 2018. But the commercial manager of the ship, owned by German company MLB Manfred Lauterjung Befrachtung, told “Al Jazeera” that “the vessel did not load any weapons or any other cargo for the destination in Israel.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on July 2, 2024.

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