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India plans to procure missile shield from U.S.
What is in news?
- India is in talks with the U.S. to procure an advanced air defence system to defend the National Capital Region (NCR) from aerial attacks.
- The process for procuring the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System-II (NASAMS-II), estimated at $1 billion, has been initiated.
Why?
- Secure airspace
- This system will help in preventing 9/11-type attacks [when terrorists flew hijacked planes into New York’s World Trade Center] on Delhi.
- India is deploying a multi-tiered air defence network to fully secure its airspace from incoming fighter aircraft, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
- This system would complement other systems such as the medium and long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems under procurement.
- India is also in an advanced stage of talks with Russia for the procurement of very long range S-400 air defence systems.
- Apart from these imports, India is also developing an indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.
- Phase-I of the BMD is expected to be deployed soon.
- India is going ahead with the procurement of the S-400 systems despite differing views of the U.S. over the sanctions against Russia and the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
What is NASAMS?
- The NASAMS was developed by Raytheon in partnership with KONGSBERG Defence and Aerospace of Norway.
- The Raytheon website says it is a “highly adaptable mid-range solution” for any operational air defence requirement and provides a tailorable, state-of-the-art defence system that can maximise the ability to quickly identify, engage and destroy current and evolving enemy aircraft, UAV or emerging cruise missile threats.”
- NASAMS-II is an upgraded version of the NASAMS and features new 3D mobile surveillance radars and 12 missile launchers for quicker reaction.
Source
The hindu,IDSA