In recent years, the government of Narendra Modi has been trying to build up India’s own defense industry, so that the country can become less reliant on imports. While it may seem counterintuitive, this move will only enhance the already robust cooperation between New Delhi and Jerusalem in the area of military technology, since Israeli companies can help India learn to make advanced equipment by itself. Moreover, the two can work together to develop new technology. Such collaboration is part and parcel of the growing bond between the two nations, writes Alvite Ningthoujam:

For the last good five years, India has remained the second largest importer of arms in the world. . . . As it is, Israel’s share in India’s defense market began to increase significantly from 2014 on. During the period past five years, India’s arms imports from Israel increased by 175 percent, making the latter New Delhi’s second largest supplier of major arms.

It is evident, [however] that the growing strategic partnership between India and Israel increasingly involves long-term co-development and defense-production programs as well as technical support. These aspects are crucial from the standpoint of India’s current military-modernization initiatives and the drive for localized production of armaments. Both countries consider the collaboration between Indian and Israeli defense firms on sophisticated defense technologies to be a success.

The strengthening of ties in this specific domain has come at this juncture when the two countries are facing both traditional and non-traditional security threats. Increasing demand for defense items due to these emerging security challenges, the quest for technological advancement in defense industries, and Israel’s readiness to meet some of the requirements of India, will lead to further expansion of defense cooperation. As Israel continues to design and develop a wide range of state-of-the-art weapons systems, it will remain an important source of defense equipment and technology for India. And Israel’s technological expertise is sure to be a key source in India’s drive to develop a self-reliant defense industry.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, Israeli special forces carried out a daring boots-on-the-ground raid on September 8 targeting the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in northwestern Syria. The site was used for producing and storing missiles which are then transferred to Hizballah in Lebanon. Jonathan Spyer notes that the raid was accompanied by extensive airstrikes in Syira,and followed a few days later by extensive attacks on Hizballah in Lebanon, one of which killed Mohammad Qassem al-Shaer, a senior officer in the terrorist group’s Radwan force, an elite infantry group. And yesterday, the IDF destroyed a weapons depot, an observation post, and other Hizballah positions. Spyer puts these attacks in context:

The direct purpose of the raid, of course, was the destruction of the facilities and materials targeted. But Israel also appeared to be delivering a message to the Syrian regime that it should not imagine itself to be immune should it choose to continue its involvement with the Iran-led axis’s current campaign against Israel.

Similarly, the killing of al-Shaer indicated that Israel is no longer limiting its response to Hizballah attacks to the border area. Rather, Hizballah operatives in Israel’s crosshairs are now considered fair game wherever they may be located in Lebanon.

The SSRC raid and the killing of al-Shaer are unlikely to have been one-off events. Rather, they represent the systematic broadening of the parameters of the conflict in the north. Hizballah commenced the current round of fighting on October 8, in support of Hamas in Gaza. It has vowed to stop firing only when a ceasefire is reached in the south—a prospect which currently seems distant.