Rafael promo riles Indian armed forces
The video produced by Israeli has not been received well by the Indian armed forces. The video’s popularity grew phenomenally after it was reported on and posted by StratPost.
One Indian Army officer told StratPost, “Is this any way to market arms? Who will buy from you if you do this sort of thing?”
An Indian Air Force (IAF) officer said, “While it can be seen as funny – perhaps a humorous parody, it’s likely to hurt the sensitivities of many people. Maybe Rafael should have thought of this before producing something like this.”
The video had been viewed 133,161 times at the time of writing and has evoked mixed reactions. There are those who are appreciative of the humor the video generates, whether inadvertent or not as well as people who have considered this insulting to India and have been appalled by the production.
The army officer also asked, “Does Rafael really need to do this kind of advertising?”
Israel’s share of India’s defense market has been growing with some reports indicating it to have overtaken Russia as India’s top arms supplier.
India is already buying the SPYDER missile system built by Rafael. DRDO and Rafael in an approximately $ 2.5 billion joint project are to develop medium range and long range surface-to-air systems.
That India already considers Israel an important military partner is apparent from the fact that the government has refused to blacklist either Israeli Aircraft Industries or Rafael for alleged corruption in the Barak I deal.
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