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India, which
shares borders with nuclear-armed China and Pakistan, is likely
to spend $250 billion over the next decade to upgrade its
military.
It is the world's biggest buyer of defense equipment but Modi is
trying to build a defense industrial base in the country to cut
overseas purchases.
The test-firing of the missile system, jointly developed by
India and Israel, was carried out by warship INS Kolkata, the
Ministry of Defence said in a statement said.
Defense industry told Reuters last year that the value of the
Barak 8 project was $1.4 billion.
The aerial defense system includes a radar for detection,
tracking and missile guidance.
Only a small club of countries including the United States,
France, Britain and Israel possess such capability, a Defence
Research and Development Organization spokesman said.
Israel is one of India's top three arms suppliers, delivering
items such as missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, but such
transactions were long largely unpublicised because of India's
fear of upsetting Arab countries and its own large Muslim
population.
(Additional reporting by Jatindra Dash; Editing by Robert
Birsel)
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