Israel Aerospace Industries bags $15mn contract for coastal radars

Bangalore: Apart from a quiet thump on each others' backs, senior Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) executives quietly went about attending the International Seminar on aerospace technologies in the city today, with the knowledge that their firm had arrived at a spate of deals with unnamed countries for various systems developed by them.

Elta Systems Group, a subsidiary of the Israeli arms major IAI, has announced that it has struck a $15 million contract for the supply of costal surveillance radars to a country, which remains unidentified.

The contract will see the supply of an undisclosed number of coastal surveillance radars designed to help the unnamed country protect its borders and help it control infiltration.

Elta says its digital, solid state, EL/M-2226 coastal surveillance compact radar provides continuous automatic detection and tracking of surface targets. According to Elta, the operation is user-friendly and does not burden the operator much. The surveillance radars can be installed in a fixed site, or in a mobile configuration, or in a combination of both, depending on specific customer requirements.

Interestingly, only last month Indian defence minister, A K Antony, had cautioned that India's vast coastline was still "vulnerable" as interests "inimical" to it were eyeing penetration through these areas in order to destabilise the country.

Speaking at the International Maritime Security Conference organised by the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, Antony had said that steps would soon be taken to set up a much tougher security ring all along the coastal regions.

Pointing out that while a sophisticated surveillance system, was already in place for the country's land borders, a special surveillance system would have to be mounted in the shortest possible time for the coastal areas.