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| Harpoon anti-ship missile |
New Delhi: The Harpoon anti-ship missile has an active radar guidance system and a low-level, sea-skimming cruise trajectory.
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The cost of US Harpoon missiles to India is $82 million.
The United States has approved the sale of the Harpoon Joint Common Test Set (JCTS) and related equipment to India for an estimated $82 million, citing the move as helping to boost bilateral strategic ties and improve the security of a key defensive partner in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has submitted the appropriate certification to the US Congress, alerting it to the possibility of a Harpoon anti-ship missile sale.
One Harpoon Joint Common Test Set had been requested by India (JCTS)
One Harpoon Intermediate Level maintenance station is included in the deal, as well as spare and repair parts, support, and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training, US Government and contractor technical, engineering, and logistics support services, and other logistics and programme support elements.
In 1977, the Harpoon was first used. It’s an anti-ship missile system that can operate in any weather conditions and over the horizon. It cruises at a low altitude, skimming the surface of the sea, with active radar guiding.
According to Boeing, the Harpoon missile is the world’s most successful anti-ship missile and is used by the armed forces of more than 30 countries.
The US has developed many variants of the missile to fit air, ship, and submarine launchers, as well as continuously updating it.
The Harpoon Missiles were delivered to Pakistan by the Reagan Administration.
The missile is in the arsenal of several countries, including Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Last year, Pakistan questioned the US administration’s decision to deliver Harpoon missiles to India, claiming it would “further destabilise the region.”
According to allegations in the US media a few years ago, US officials were dissatisfied with Pakistan’s unlawful modifications to the Harpoon anti-ship missile. The problem had been raised by US officials with the Pakistani government at the time, which was led by former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
In the 1980s, the Reagan government delivered 165 Harpoon missiles to Pakistan as a Cold War defence weapon. Pakistan’s alleged alterations were in violation of the US Arms Control Export Act. Pakistan, on the other hand, denied making any adjustments to the anti-ship missile.
Harpoon is capable of travelling at Mach speeds.
Fixed-wing aircraft, ships, and submarines can all launch the missile. Since its beginnings in the 1980s, the subsonic cruise missile has experienced a variety of combat actions.
During Operation Praying Mantis in 1988, the US employed Harpoon missiles to sink the Iranian frigate Sahand. It has a 224-kilo payload and a semi-active radar guidance system.
The missile has a high subsonic speed of 0.85 Mach and can hit targets over a range of 90-240 kilometres.
Initiative on US Foreign Policy
According to the DSCA, the proposed sale will help the United States’ foreign policy and national security by strengthening the strategic relationship between the US and India and improving the security of a major defensive partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia region.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States in June 2016, the US designated India as a “major defence partner,” committing the US to facilitate technology sharing with India on par with its closest allies and partners, as well as industry collaboration for defence co-production and research and co-development.
According to the State Department, the proposed foreign military sale will strengthen India’s capacity to respond to present and future threats by providing it with flexible and efficient Harpoon missile maintenance capabilities to assure maximum force readiness.
In The Region, There Is A Basic Military Balance
The Pentagon stated that the proposed supply of this weaponry and support will not change the region’s basic military balance, noting that India will have no trouble assimilating it into its armed forces.
“The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Missouri, will be the major contractor; there are no known offset agreements planned in conjunction with this potential sale; any offset agreement required by India will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor(s),” it stated.
The United States sells Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan in an effort to control China. Taiwan already has a road-mobile supersonic missile, the Hsiung Feng III, with a range of roughly 250 miles, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
If hostilities between the two nations break out, the two missile systems – Harpoon and Hsiung Feng-III – would operate as a deterrent to Chinese military strength, at least in the short term.
The past Trump administration increased support for Taiwan through military sales and visits by senior US officials, further straining already tight relations between Beijing and Washington over the South China Sea, Hong Kong, human rights, and trade.