NEW DELHI: Soon after PM Narendra Modi visits Tel Aviv in July, the first-ever by an Indian PM since bilateral diplomatic relations were established in 1992, the Indian Air Force will be participating in a top-notch air combat exercise in Israel.

In the first such exercise to be held with Israel, India will be among the seven nations taking part in the "

" exercise, which will witness almost 100 fighters and other aircraft undertake extensive combat manoeuvres for two weeks, said sources.

The other six nations are the United States, Greece, Poland, France, Germany and Italy. The Blue Flag exercise till now used to involve the US, Greece and Poland, apart from of course Israel.

Though India and Israel share expansive defence ties, ever since Tel Aviv rushed emergency weapon supplies to New Delhi during 1999 Kargil conflict, the relationship has largely been kept under wraps due to domestic political sensitivities.

The NDA government has firmly brought them out of the closet now. Israel is among the top three arms suppliers to India, notching up sales worth almost $1 billion every year.

The acquisitions range from Phalcon AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) and Searcher, Heron and Harop UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to Aerostat and Green Pine radars, Barak anti-missile defence systems and several types of missiles & laser-guided bombs.

Ahead of Modi's trip to Israel, as was earlier reported by TOI, India last month cleared a Rs 16,830 crore project between DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries to develop medium-range surface to air missile (MR-SAM) systems for the Army.

This project follows the two similar DRDO-IAI programmes already underway for MR-SAMs for Indian warships (initial cost was Rs 2,606 crore) and IAF air defence squadrons (Rs 10,076 crore).

The bilateral Joint Working Group on Defence is also discussing probable joint R&D projects in fields like high-endurance UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), micro-satellite surveillance systems, armoured vehicles and different types of missiles and precision-guided munitions, said sources.

Another big procurement in the works is for two more Israeli Phalcon AWACS, which are to be mounted on Russian IL-76 military aircraft, and four more Aerostat radars for well over $1 billion.