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| Iron Dome (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki) |
TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- For the first time, Israel has put its rocket-killing Iron Dome air defense system, plus the Stunner interceptor used by the David's Sling system, on display outside the Jewish state in a mounting export drive for the defensive weapons.
"Israeli companies have targeted India as a key market for the coming years, in part because of its huge defense budgets for the procurement of advanced weapons systems," the Israeli business daily Globes observed.
Iron Dome and David's Sling are both products of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, one of Israel's leading defense contractors. They were showcased at the Aero India 2013 exhibition in Bangalore, hub of India's high-tech sector, last week.
"The Ministry of Defense has given Rafael the Green Light to sell the systems to other countries, although no contracts have been reported yet," Globes observed.
India, a major buyer of Israeli defense systems, is the world's biggest arms importer. Its total military expenditure in 2011, excluding nuclear weapons, was $44.28 billion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.
It's expected to spend up to $150 billion at home and abroad on modernizing its military over the next decade as it prepares to confront China's burgeoning military power, particularly in the Indian Ocean, a key oil supply route from the Middle East.
Iron Dome, the first system of its kind, is a mobile, all-weather air-defense system that has attracted global interest following its success in combating Palestinian rockets the last two years.
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