Monday, November 09, 2009 NEW DELHI: Israel has signed a $1.1 billion contract to supply an upgraded tactical air defence system to India, with delivery expected by 2017, an Israeli official said on Monday.The sale of the Barak-8 systems came as India's army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, held high-level talks in Israel, India's biggest defence supplier.Made by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., the Barak-8 is designed for use aboard ships and can shoot down incoming missiles, planes and drones. The most advanced version can be also deployed on land, the Israeli official said.India has already acquired an earlier generation of the Barak system, the official said.The Barak-8 contract was signed in April, and delivery of the systems will take place "over the next six to eight years".The Indian embassy in Tel Aviv had no immediate comment.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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