Rabat – Morocco is reportedly in negotiations with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to purchase Barak 8 missiles, Israel Defense reported.
The Barak 8 missile was jointly developed by Israel and India and can be launched from sea or land. The device protects sensitive targets against various aerial threats over a radius of 150 kilometers.
Colonel Sharon Bitton, IAI’s marketing director for the Gulf countries, is carrying out the negotiations, the same source noted.
Several Israeli news outlets have reported that the negotiations began with the visit of Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Morocco on November 23. Morocco and Israel signed military agreements to strengthen security cooperation.
The agreements are related to the development of a project to “manufacture” drones in Morocco, with recent reports that the two countries intend to cooperate in the production of kamikaze drones.
In November, the Israeli media Globes reported that a contract had been concluded between the Israeli firm Skylock Systems to supply Morocco with the Skylock Dome anti-drone system which detects, verifies, and neutralizes drones.
In the wake of Gantz’s visit, Rabat also ordered a batch of Israeli drones, the Harop type, also known as unmanned aircraft kamikaze, from IAI. The drones’ contract value is around $22 million.
In recent years, Morocco has acquired several pieces of military equipment to strengthen its Royal Armed Forces’ (FAR) operational capabilities amid rising regional tensions and to combat extremist or insurgent groups in Western Sahara.
Last week, Morocco inaugurated its first military base dedicated to long-range air defense, near the town of Sidi Yahia el Gharb in the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region.
The base hosts a batch of China’s long-range air defense system FD-2000B, which is one of the “four batteries that Morocco” acquired in 2017, according to military affairs-focused website Defensa.
Morocco also seeks to upgrade its two largest air bases as it prepares to receive a fleet of state-of-the-art F-16 Block 72 it ordered from the US in 2019.
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