Asian country awards IAI USD 550m contract for air defense system.

On 29 October, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced it has won a tender for a “mega-contract” worth $550 million with the army of an undisclosed Asian country to provide its “Sky Capture” air defense system, as Shoshanna Solomon reports in The Times of Israel. However undisclosed, the country is believed to be India.

Sky Capture is a command and control platform which transforms the customer’s existing air defense systems into “highly accurate and effective” ones (Picture source: IAI)

Sky Capture is a command and control platform, which transforms the customer’s existing air defense systems into “highly accurate and effective” ones, with advanced command and control capabilities as well as information based on multiple sensors, including advanced fire control and detection radars, electro-optical sensors all made by IAI and its subsidiary ELTA Systems. The command and control system provides accurate target data for the interceptors and manages the threat and firing detection in an optimal manner, based on the target type, IAI said in a statement. The system developed at IAI provides short-range aerial defense against a broad range of airborne threats through cannon control. IAI competed against “several defense leaders” in the tender, the Israeli company said.

Boaz Levi, IAI’s executive vice president and general manager of Systems, Missiles & Space Group, said that “Sky Capture combines several aerial interception methodologies, reflecting the extensive capabilities of IAI’s air defense know how. The system sold under this contract uses air defense cannons and is also designed, if needed, to manage short-range missiles and laser interception systems.” The deal comes on the heels of another contract, announced last week, worth $777 million with India to supply a maritime version of the Barak-8 missile defense system.