Posted on 10/25/2014 9:32:33 AM PDT by xzins
India has opted to buy Israel's Spike anti-tank guided missile, a defence ministry source said on Saturday, rejecting a rival U.S. offer of Javelin missiles that Washington had lobbied hard to win.
India will buy at least 8,000 Spike missiles and more than 300 launchers in a deal worth 32 billion rupees ($525 million), the source said after a meeting of India's Defence Acquisition Council.
"National security is the paramount concern of the government," the source quoted Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who also holds the finance portfolio, as telling the procurement panel.
"All hurdles and bottlenecks in the procurement process should be addressed expeditiously so that the pace of acquisition is not stymied."
Among other business cleared by the panel, India will issue a request for proposals to supply six submarines, added the source, who was not authorised to comment on the record and did not elaborate.
Spike is a man-portable 'fire and forget' anti-tank missile that locks on to targets before shooting. It is produced by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, which declined to comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
One can hardly blame the Indians for choosing the Spike over the Javelin after the US administration refused resupply to Israel during the recent GAZA reprisal.
Israel has itself decided the US is an unreliable provider and is developing more of its weapons on its own.
India noticed (all nations noticed) that IF THE ADMINISTRATION disagrees with your policy, they won't supply you.
And we know that India's main opposition will be Pakistan and especially Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan. They know Obama will object to just about any Indian incursion against anything Islamic.
A fire and forget anti-tank weapons should be in the hands of the Kurds by now, but apparently Obama doesn't want the Kurds easily killing those ISIS tanks.
Good.
The name Javelin probably reminded them too much of “Bruce Jenner, the Worlds Greatest Athlete”.
I’m sure Turkey has been telling Obama not to supply any weapons to the Kurds that could threaten Turkey’s ability to wipe them out.
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