Barak 8 also known as Indian-Israeli surface-to-air missile (SAM) is designed to defend against
any type of airborne threat including aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs
as well as ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and combat jets.
It is one of the most successful joint venture between India and Israel , and has been a
major milestone in terms of strategic cooperation.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes why Barak 8 is considered to be one of the best
air defense system in the world ?
Barak 8 was jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), India's Defense Research
& Development Organization (DRDO), Israel's Administration for the Development of Weapons
and Technological Infrastructure, Elta Systems, Rafael and other companies.
Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) is responsible for producing the missiles.
BARAK 8 is based on the original Barak 1 missile and it feature a more advanced seeker, alongside
range extensions that moves it closer to medium range naval systems like the RIM-162 ESSM
or even the SM-2 Standard missile system.
India’s previous positive experiences with BARAK 1, and the opportunity to help develop
new technologies instead of buying them, led India toward Israel for its next-generation
naval SAM partnership.
The missile has a length of about 4.5 m, diameter of 0.54 m and a wingspan of 0.94 m.
The missile has maximum speed of Mach 2 with a maximum operational range of 70 km, which
was later increased to 100 km.
Barak 8 features a dual pulse rocket motor as well as Thrust vector control.
This enables high degrees of maneuverability making it very hard for the target to evade.
A second motor is fired during the terminal phase, during which an active radar seeker
is activated to home in on to the enemy track.
MF STAR is the eye for Barack 8.
MF-STAR is an acronym of Multi-Function Surveillance, Track And Guidance Radar.
MF STAR, which can track hundreds of targets simultaneously, is meant to provide guidance
to the BARACK 8 missiles.
It is multifunction active electronically scanned array naval radar that can track incoming
missiles and aircraft at ranges beyond 250 km and sea skimming missiles at about 25 km.
The radar system is made up of 4 active arrays operating in the S-band, each of the 4 arrays
is positioned in one direction.
The radar deploy multi-beam and pulse Doppler techniques.
It also has robust Electronic counter techniques to extract low radar cross-section targets
from complex clutter and jamming environments.
The MF-STAR is considered to be as powerful as the US Navy’s Aegis combat system that
uses the AN/SPY-1D radar and forms the core of America’s most advanced Ticonderoga class
cruisers and Arleigh Burke class destroyers.
The BARAK 8 missile system can operate by night as well as by day in addition to all
weather conditions.
It is capable of successfully dealing with simultaneous threats engagements, even in
severe saturation scenarios.The system has a very short reaction time and a fast missile
vertical launch capability with 360 degree coverage.
A very important feature of Barack 8 is that the minimum engagement range is only 0.5 km.
So the system can target an incoming hostile object till the very last seconds , potentially
giving it the ability to target it multiple times.
Israel is already manufacturing Barak 8 and installed it its 3 Saar 5 class corvettes.
The Barak 1 installed in lighter Sa’ar 4.5-class corvettes are also in the process of being
replaced with Barak 8.
Indian Navy’s Kolkata-class destroyers, Visakhapatnam-class destroyers, Kamorta-class
corvettes, and aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant have Barrack 8 installed or
are currently in the process of being installed.
It has been reported that an ER (extended range) variant of the Barak 8 is under development,
which will see the missiles maximum range increased to 150 km.
Designed to engage multiple beyond visual range threats, the low launch signature Barak-8ER
will retain the same navigation system and active radar seeker guidance as the Barak-8.
Some modifications to the software and to the missile control surfaces are expected
, though the exact details are not available.
The missile will have an increased length of 6 m from its current 4.5 m to
accommodate more fuel.