[Israeli Merkava Mk 4 main battle tank]
There are numerous nuclear, military and foreign policy recommendations and suggestions in my books and writings over the last 40 years that have been picked up and implemented, naturally without any public acknowledgement, that have given me great satisfaction.
But, for the first time an idea of mine to advance seriously substantive defence cooperation with a foreign country, Israel, is being pursued by that country’s government, even though all along I had hoped and wished it was an Indian regime that would initiate it!
Some 22 years ago, the then Israeli Home Minister, Uzi Landau, and his adviser — one of the most influential heads of Mossad (1989-1996), Shabtai Shavit, on a visit to Delhi, met with me in my office at the Centre for Policy Research. The subject was defence cooperation. We talked about a number of things, but a programme for defence industrial cooperation involving a merger of our respective strengths that I proposed, is what perked their interest. After a meaningful exchange of glances, Landau and Shavit requested me to flesh out what I had in mind.
Based on the history of close but covert relations India had with Israel from 1948 to 1992 when formal diplomatic relations were established, and especially the memorable episode not widely known in India of Levi Eshkol, the long time Director General of the Ministry of Defense (1948-1963) flying into Mumbai, secretly, in a long range military cargo plane in late October 1962 with the first Israeli shipment of ammunition and artillery shells the Indian army desperately needed to fight the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at the Himalayan heights, I suggested the two countries needed to seriously enhance defence cooperation. (Incidentally, Israel was not only the first country to offer India military aid in 1962, but also the first promptly to deliver it. The next year, Eshkol became the 3rd Israeli prime minister.)
In the barest form, what I outlined to Messrs Landau and Shavit was that India and Israel jointly manufacture conventional arms and weapons platforms, and research, develop, and test advanced systems; that this would be economical, and the production scalable to meet the needs of the armed forces of both the countries, and ensure low unit price. And it would permit both states to avoid diplomatic pressure by powerful arms supplier countries in crises.
These aims would be furthered, I argued, by
- the Israeli defence industry keeping some select production lines humming as fallback, but the Indian defence industry being tasked to produce, in bulk, the small arms, machine guns and light machine guns, and ammo, long range guns and shells to meet the requirements of both countries, inclusive of the Uzi automatic machine pistol (named, like the Kalashnikov, after its designer — Uziel Gal), artillery, and even the Merkava main battle tank (currently deployed in its Mark 4 version) — called the “mother tank” because of the protection it provides;
- Indian defence firms paying royalty for technologies from Israeli systems that would be incorporated into Indian designed armaments and platforms;
- having the surge capacity to replace on an accelerated basis the attrited war materiel to meet the suddenly spiking needs of either/or both countries engaged in war, or for stocking up in preparation for war, and free the two states from being disadvantaged on the battlefield owing to depleting stores;
- the excess Indian manufacturing capacity, in peacetime, besides servicing the two militaries, producing slightly de-rated items in the product line for exports, with a suitable scheme for sharing profits — the objective being for this Combine to emerge as a leading arms supplier in the world;
- India investing in and helping fund R&D in cutting-edge military technology projects by Israeli companies, and having Indian scientists and engineers work alongside their Israeli counterparts in India and Israel on shared project work in every aspect of systems design and development, to promote cross-pollination.
I put forward this proposal to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he visited New Delhi in 2003. And then followed up by making the case to Israeli ambassadors. The last time I did so was with Alon Ushpiz (2011 – 2014) who returned home to be appointed, a few years later, as DG, Foreign Ministry.
This proposal was, however, just a bridge too damned far for the persons in the Indian govt and military I conveyed it to.
But all the advocacy over time may have left some paper trails in Tel Aviv, and the Gaza War no doubt helped drive home the point about just how vulnerable Israel really is when engaging in high-intensity operations to find that, at high rates of war materiel attrition, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) was coming perilously close to exhausting its War Stock and War Wastage Reserve and can’t sustain fastpaced warfighting for too long.
The skyrocketing war demand has led as, Indian Defence Research Wing reports (https://idrw.org/israel-looks-to-indian-defense-firms-for-weapons-production-amid-supply-strain/), to the Israeli government and defence industry approaching Indian companies to license produce Israeli weapons and systems for the IDF to offtake. Among these systems are drones, electronic warfare systems, precision guided munitions and missiles. This is far less than the more comprehensive cooperation plan to mesh the defence industries of the two countries I had pitched to Landau and Shavit, but it is a beginning.
There have been Indo-Israeli projects. Such as the one to produce a long range surface-to-air missile. Except, as I pointed out in my writings and to an Israeli ambassador, the division of labour was skewed — with India exclusively producing the low value backend items, while the Israeli company designed and produced the high value LRSAM motor, guidance paraphernalia like the thermal seeker, etc. — this even though India funded the project in its entirety — in other words Indian monies financed the R&D of a new missile for a tech that the Israelis retained! Can’t blame the Israelis for taking advantage of a clueless Indian defence ministry’s defence production department’s agreeing to such a one-sided deal which, after all, is par for the course. The defence ministry always drafts contracts beneficial to the foreign country/company! Baap ka paisa hai!
Hearteningly, the IDRW report hints at the Israelis approaching Indian private sector firms, which is a damn good thing, and would be just the course for the latter to gain foreign customers and credibility with an Indian government fixated on the wasteful and quite hopeless defence public sector units, and for the country’s defence industry as a whole to takoff.
Security Wise 
@BharatKarnad professor
1)Considering the Indian government is coward to test again Can’t we ask the Israelis for thermonuclear designs to correct our dud device of 1998 so that we have some high yield weapons other then the 20kt firecrackers
2)Merkava tanks are great but what about the sophisticated/advanced and easy to fire anti tank missiles can’t they take out Merkava like T90’s in Ukraine
Israeli establishment is behaving very sadistically by its action of indiscriminate genocide of Palestinians and Lebanon’s citizens.
Considering the fact that Hitler massacred millions of Jews during the Second World War. Israel should have empathy but their sadistic trait is baffling to say the least.
India should initiate a defense partnership with Taiwan at the earliest but the Indian political establishment is too scared of the Chinese government.
Israel has been committing war crimes and crimes against Humanity ever since it came into existence (which India opposed) in 1948. For a country like India, which professes to uphold Gandhian values, that is disgraceful. Without a doubt, Israel will meet its comeuppance soon.
@Niraj those Gandhian values are the real problem because of which today our country is in such a mess be it Nuclear, Military or any parameter. With the current superiority in conventional weapons Israel cannot be defeated(it has the most powerful airforce in the middle east and technologically advanced IDF) and in future if they feel 100 percent that they will get overrun well then the samson option is ready
Professor,
The issue with joint defence production especially with ammunition and artillery weapons etc. is that it gives Israel license to wage war indiscriminately in West Asia. I think strategically, India and Israel are aligned on many things. But perhaps how Israel conducts war in West Asia is something India may differ from Israel on.
The escalation currently going on in the Israel war prevents the I2U2 from taking shape. Additionally, there is no progress on the International North South corridor with Russia, which arguably benefits India but not Israel.
Clearly, India will benefit from joint production of weapons with Israel. But what do you think about how Israel goes about doing its business?
No one will give us the know-hows and know-whys of technology; and why should they? would we give our hard-earned technological secrets? License production is worse than useless, as it wastes time and money which could be well spent on funding our own MIC. We have learned more from the Tejas programme than the umpteen years spent on screwdrivering Su-30s.
There’s no shortcut to self-sufficiency, either we pour massive amounts of cash in the R&D or perpetually beg others for the TOT—Which will never materialise. We should imitate the Americans by discreetly pouring the federal money, via institutional investors or venture capitalists, in universities and private research labs for R&D, and in private companies for mass production.
This is a response for many readers appalled by Israel’s ferocious reaction in Gaza.
Israel is 9.3 miles (14.97 kilometers) wide (from the Net) at its narrowest point, from Netanya to the West Bank town of Tukarim — a distance that can be crossed on foot in less than two hours!
———-
Israel is a very small, extremely vulnerable, country with a 10 million population — some 22% Arab! The Israeli people and government are unwilling to take any chances — especially when the Arab countries and peoples surrounding it talk incessantly of “pushing the Jews into the sea”. Moreover, in the Oct 7, 2023, war initiation Hamas mercilessly killed 1,200 people — young and old, many in a grissly manner. To get a perspective, for India’s 1.4 billion population, that proportion of people killed by terrorists would work out to 168,000 deaths!
Which Indian govt — however faint-hearted, would not go ballistic, and the Indian people not support it?
One more thing sir israel has a policy of not allowing their adversary to have nuclear weapons (begin doctrine).They know even after all the sophisticated air defence arrow 3 and all even if a few warheads hit tel aviv or Haifa they are finished as a nation and society
@Karnad- Armchair experts like you pretend to have all the answers. Count your blessings that you weren’t born into slavery and subjugation like the Palestinians.
@Chamaar the Palestinians are not so innocent i mean i may sound rude but you “You reap what you sow” and i am not talking about just October 7 i am considering the timeline after Israel became a country repeated suicide bombings, stabbing, killing of Israeli civilians and regarding the armchair comment i do not want to get into you and professor’s conversation but as someone who has read his books and work i can say that he writes logically and speaks the truth in a hard headed way(in India’s interest) which some may not like
Professor, I think Indians mostly support Israel. The question is whether Israel will solve its problems the way it does and will this war escalate out of control, which is not in India’s interest – I2U2, INSTC, cheap oil. I really do not want the Israel Iran situation to go out of control.
I was watching some videos of Indian military personnel who have said that India’s approach in Kashmir is different – there is also an effort to win hearts and minds of the local population. I don’t follow ME politics that much, but a realist like Prof. Mearsheimer says that Israel practices apartheid within Israel and its current war strategy is foolish. He also argues that the Israel lobby in the US pushes policies that are not in the interests of the US or Israel. I don’t have much of a view as I don’t know all the history and facts, but Israel risks a lot for a lot more countries than itself by the way it’s conducting this war.
@Mishra- Israel is forcibly occupying land of Palestinians. A handful of Israeli’s get killed and in retaliation Israel massacres hundreds of Palestinians.
Nobody cares about what one writes or not unless the individual is well connected in the corridors of power.
It’s easy to take a moral high ground when the person doesn’t has any political or official post.
Email from Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia (Retd), former DG, Mil Ops
Sat, 2 Nov at 11:16 am
Interesting. Thank you.
Regards
Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia (retd)
Email from Rear Admiral KR ‘Raja’ Menon (Retd), former Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Ops)
Raja Menon
Sat, 2 Nov at 6:50 pm
Well done Bharat and warm Diwali greetings
Regards
Raja
Dr Karnad, not just in conventional weapons but you had also advocated for collaboration between Israel and India in strategic armaments . India would allow its nuclear facility to be used for testing Israeli Nuclear Weapons as Israel used to be heavily depended on South Africa for using its testing facilities( possibly situated in the Kalahari Desert ?) , all of which were dismantled after Nelson Mandela came to power in the 1990s.
food@ — Quite right
And if we allow them to use our facilities they would certainly give us thermonuclear designs to correct our dud devices
I had read about Eshkol and others in a brilliant book ‘Six Days of War : June 1967 and the making of Modern Middle East’ by Michael B. Oren. India carrying out targeted killings of high profile terrorists is because the likes of Doval have learned and are inspired by their interactions with Israeli leaders.
Secondly, I think India has largely indigenised MRSAM and Indian ships in pipeline will boast 100% indigenous and more advanced versions of it. Uttam AESA is the result of our fiddling with EL/M-2052 for a long time and is one up on that. India integrating a limited number of Spike NLOS on Mi-17 will see her producing similar missiles locally. The same wouldn’t have been true, had India opted for Javelin.
So I don’t agree that India does not gain in critical technologies from Israel by producing low-end shares in the beginning. The reasons are that Israel needs hard Indian cash to sustain its war effort in the Middle East so they can be coaxed to divulge certain secrets, the interests of both countries largely converge, India has zero record of proliferating Israeli technology to Russia or other countries and India hasn’t reverse engineered any Israeli technology like China. However he same cannot be said of the USA. Where Israel refuses to transfer technology we simply demur from buying that system. The case of Trophy Active Protection System is a ready pointer
India’s Swordfish radar ows its origin to Israeli Green Pine radar to the point that India is now in the process to build its indigenous radar with a range of 5000km for Ballistic Missile Defence. SAAW, Gaurav, Gautham guided weapons owe their origin to experience with Spice-2000 during Balakot.
@Gagandeep, agree that India benefits from its partnership with Israel. In fact, it might be one of the few countries that wants to enhance Indian defense capabilities so that it can benefit in its ongoing wars. It is also sufficiently irreverent of the US and is not totally under its influence. I think for the most part Indian and Israeli interests are aligned. The difference would be in the degree to which Israel acts aggressively. India would perhaps deal with the situation differently.
@BharatKarnad In military manufacturing capacity, what does de-rated items mean?
Ganesh@ — Neither the US nor SU/Russia sell/transfer cutting edge capability. De-rated means as much as 30% of cutting edge level of performance cut out via lower level avionics on combat aircraft, for instance. Or, the weapons on board.
@BharatKarnad So, does that mean that all the Soviet Union-origin/Russian-origin military hardwares that were sold in the past and the ones that have been sold recently including the S-400 Triumf are 30% of cutting-edge level of performance cut-out, including the US-origin/American-origin, Israeli-origin and French-origin military hardwares?
De-rating is a political decision. To anticipate your next Q, no there’s no reason to ideantify the weapons system.
@BharatKarnad Any specific reason for not identifying the weapons systems?
No
@BharatKarnad If, like you say, de-rating is a political decision, then, doesn’t that mean that even after the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation, the then-Soviet Union cheated us by selling India de-rated military hardwares and the same is being continued by its successor state, the Russian Federation and the United States of America, Israel and France are cheating us by selling us de-rated military hardwares? If yes, then, what should India do to avoid get cheated by way of de-rated foreign military hardwares?
Ganesh@ — “cheated us”? That’s the norm, buddy! No one is fool enough to hand over the most advanced tech for love or money — a point I have been hammering away at for 2 decades now.
@BharatKarnad
professor this is regarding your comparison when you said “we can’t absorb the first monsoon strike can we really absorb a nuclear strike” well sir floods and rains occur everywhere i mean look at the coastal states of united states and if you look at our adversary main China. China has a infamous history of devastating floods most recently in Beijing and surrounding villages of Beijing but you don’t doubt the capabilities of the Chinese to respond to an American nuclear strike. And i am not saying that our sewage system is worldclass certainly we have to work to improve it.
my simple saying is that please give a better realistic example which Portrays this situation/mess
would love to know your opinion
@BharatKarnad
sir is this true that if someday united states or india takes out three gorges dam it can kill some 400 million chinese and literally cause nuclear flooding in southern China
i mean if this true then shouldn’t three gorges be a more important target then Beijing or shanghai
if you could elaborate more about this?
That’s what I detailed in my 2015 book — Why India Is Not a great Power (Yet)!
Email from Air Marshal Harish Masand (Retd)
Harish Masand , Tue, 5 Nov 2024
Interesting Bharat, Thanks for sharing.
The point you make about MoD’s Defence production dept agreeing to lop-sided contracts has long plagued us. Even in the Bis Upgrade program when I personally drafted the contracts, I had got them full ToT for systems like the Ring Laser INGPS system but instead of pursuing it, they showed no interest and the AF promptly went and bought a large number of INGPS systems for the Su-30s a few years later. There is more in such deals than absorption of tech and local manufacture. Baap ka paisa was also very evident in many systems while doing the upgrade. Guess it will take a lot more before we put the nation before ourselves
@BharatKarnad
Sir as of now it is quite certain that trump is back in the office again for the next 4 years
please do write a detailed blog regarding this latest development
Dear Dr Karnad , very interesting article. I think some important conclusions can be made from this article. 1. Israeli economy and military are struggling to cope up with forever wars like this current one. 2. I just read Israel has received about USD 22 Billion in military support from the Biden administration for last one year. Now with Israel coming to India for help does it mean that Israel support from the US is not enough ? 3. How long before Israeli will to fight is exhausted ? Another year maybe ? 4. What will be the repercussions for perceived critical Indian support for Israel in places like Iran and Iraq and GCC ? 5. I have already observed two Indian origin Mizo lads aged between 20-25 dying while fighting in Gaza/Lebanon for the IDF in last one month. How will this impact India’s image in the gulf considering we have much stronger economic ties there.