In an exclusive interview with NDTV commemorating Kargil Vijay Diwas, two former Israeli Air Force officers revealed details of a covert defense partnership between Israel and India that proved pivotal during the 1999 Kargil War.
The collaboration originated in November 1996 when Rafael Advanced Defense Systems signed an agreement to equip the Indian Air Force’s French-built Mirage 2000 fighter jets with Israeli-made Litening targeting pods to enhance strike precision. Following years of trials alongside India’s DRDO and HAL, the project pivoted into an urgent wartime operation in early 1999 after a Friday night call from India’s defense attaché in Tel Aviv, Group Captain N.A.K. Browne (who later became Chief of the Air Staff).
A team of Israeli engineers and specialists immediately dispatched to India, faced with the complex task of integrating Israeli targeting pods, French aircraft, and American laser-guided bombs into a unified combat system. Working round-the-clock alongside Indian Air Force officers, the combined team enabled high-altitude precision strikes on enemy positions—such as Tiger Hill—which proved to be a major turning point in Operation Safed Sagar and Operation Vijay.
