India recently presented its strategic plan to create a multi-layered defense system, which includes the Barak 8 system. Also known as LR-SAM or MR-SAM, Barak 8 is designed to defend against any type of airborne threat including aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs as well as ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and combat jets. The surface-to-air missile system was developed jointly by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with India.
Between 2017 and 2023, this system was the source of the Israeli defense industries' biggest-ever deal. The sale of Barak 8 systems to India in April 2017 for about $1.6 billion, and about a month later of the naval version of Barak 8 missiles for another $630 million, held the record until another deal by IAI: the sale of the Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany in 2023, for about $3.5 billion.
Like all of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans, India's ambition is to emphasize local production, in the spirit of Make in India. Barak 8 is a joint development with Israel, but it is expected to be an integral part of the multi-layered defense system by virtue of being operational, and one that provides an effective response. According to Modi, the ambition is that all strategic facilities in the country will receive "full security coverage" by 2035.
Under DRDO, the Indian government's defense research and development body (the equivalent of Israel's MAFAT Directorate of Defense Research and Development and the Defense Intelligence Agency), Project Kusha, or Extended Range Air Defence System (ERADS), focuses on air defense issues. As part of the research body, the Indians are currently working to increase independence with locally produced interceptors with ranges between 150 and 400 kilometers, so that these can be integrated into both IAI's Barak 8 system and the Russian-made S-400.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 11, 2025.
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