SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.
Armenia is considering ordering Indian-made medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) system to enforce its mid-tier Surface-to-air missile systems and replace some of the soviet-era short to medium-range Surface-to-air missile systems like S-125 Pechora.
Armenia already operates S-300PS batteries, which come with an interception range of 150km but is lacking quality mid-tier Surface-to-air missile system. idrw.org has been told that some level of inquiries has happened, while India has offered its own indigenous Air Defence System like Akash and Akash-NG and all options are open for further talks.
Interestingly Azerbaijani Air Force operates an Israeli version of the Barak 8 that is completely made up of all Israeli systems, while MR-SAM has many of the Israeli components but India has complete ToT of them, but some of the components do come from Israel even though India is not dependent on Israel for their export clearance of the weapon system.
The CEO of Israeli defence firm Rafael Advanced Systems recently stated that their vision included not only manufacturing missiles in India, but also exporting made-in-India missiles. Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems (KRAS), under a collaboration between Rafael and India’s Kalyani, assembles kits for the Indo-Israeli Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM).
idrw.org has been told that while Israeli clearance might not be required for the export of the MR-SAM but India still needs to consider taking IAI into confidence if Armenia is still keen on acquiring the MR-SAM system or if it is willing to settle for other Indian-made Air Defence System like Akash-NG.
The DRDO in India is also developing its own Barak-8ER called ERSAM, which will use the same airframe but have indigenous content in the missile system with range upto 150km.
About MRSAM
The MRSAM is an advanced network-centric combat air defence system developed jointly by DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in partnership with the Indian industry comprising private and public sectors, including micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Each MRSAM weapon system comprises one command and control system, one tracking radar, missiles, mobile launcher systems, a combat management system, a mobile power system, a radar power system, and a field service vehicle and It can engage multiple targets at ranges of up to 70km in complex environments.
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