Investor's Business Daily January 26, 2007
India's Major Tech Needs Are Often Met by Israel
By Doug Tsuruoka
It might surprise some to learn that India is the biggest arms buyer in the developing world — outspending China by $2.6 billion in 2005, for a grand total of $5.4 billion in weapons contracts, says the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
Another little-known fact is that the country that sold the most arms to India after top-ranked Russia in 2006 was the tiny nation of Israel.
Israel, with its population of 6 million and small domestic market, is one of the world's most active arms exporters. Much of what Israel sells comes from know-how it acquired in three major wars in the Middle East.
"The Israelis will sell to anybody," said John Pike, the head of defense researcher GlobalSecurity.org.
According to figures issued by the Indian government in early January, Israel sold India $1.5 billion worth of arms in 2006. Israel says it sold $4.2 billion worth of arms worldwide in 2006.
A lot of Israel's success in selling arms to India and other nations is traceable to the advanced quality of its military hardware.
"The Israelis are able to offer specialized, very high-tech gear that the Indians cannot get elsewhere," said Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore.
Exact figures for Russian arms sales to India in 2006 aren't available. Sales stretch out over several years. But the figure is known to be well in excess of Israeli arms sales to India in 2006.
Shlomo Aronson, a political science professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says Israel has a great deal riding on arms sales to India.
"It's not just military cooperation," Aronson said. "For Israel to develop a relationship with a nation that has a population of 1 billion strong is a major breakthrough from a geopolitical point of view."
Israel's especially keen on expanding nonmilitary trade and technology sharing with India, which has the world's fastest-growing economy after China's.
Aronson says India's current nationalist, pro-Hindu government is less wary of buying arms from Israel than earlier ones. India has traditionally sided with the Palestinians in the Mideast and has been hostile toward Israel. But such feelings are easing in the wake of India's own struggles with militant Islam.
Aronson says India uses the arms purchases in part to access Israeli technology. This includes electronics and software that can be used for peaceful commercial purposes.
Israel's arms sales to India in 2006 included nearly $500 million for a naval anti-missile defense system called the Barak. The weapon knocks down missiles fired at ships. India is buying weapons such as the Barak to do a better job of defending shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, through which most of its oil and cargo pass.
The Indians also inked a $220 million deal with Israel last year to supply 50 unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to the Indian army.
Bitzinger says other Indian purchases include Israel's Green Pine ballistic missile detection and tracking radar.
Israeli companies, which are mostly state-owned, export virtually every military product they make, from highly rated Tavor assault rifles to artillery shells, fortification systems, planes and space gear.
Pike says Israel has sold arms overseas aggressively to help it lower the costs of making weapons for its own military.
Most of the arms it sells are also used by the Israeli Defense Forces. Exporting such hardware pays for the cost of developing and manufacturing them for the Israeli military.
"Israel has to sell to as many people as it can. Otherwise, its weapons costs would just bankrupt it," Pike said.
Israel has avoided vying with U.S. defense makers by selling to niche export markets. Although U.S. companies are keen on selling big-ticket items such as fighter planes, the Israelis export more specialized weapons.
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