The Israeli press claims that Morocco will acquire the Barak MX anti-missile system. Cost of the operation: approximately 500 million dollars.
Since the signing of the Abraham Accords, Morocco no longer hesitates to turn to its new ally, Israel. Last August, we learned that the Israeli company Elta Systems had transformed three American aircraft into spy planes, on behalf of the Cherifian kingdom. Information that followed the “Project Pegasus” scandal, which showed how Rabat used Israeli spyware to monitor several national and international personalities.
Morocco no longer hides its cooperation in terms of defense with Israel. The culmination of this new relationship was the visit late last year of Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Rabat. A year after the normalization of relations between the kingdom and the Jewish state, the aim was to lay the foundations for strengthening security cooperation between the two countries.
Following this meeting last November, the contracts continue to be negotiated. Among them, the one concerning the Barak MX defense system, which the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (FAR) would like to acquire. There is talk of a contract worth around $500 million, according to the israeli press.
Capable of neutralizing missiles Iskander
What is Barak MX? It is a "flexible and modular missile defense system", according to Israeli newspapers, which can protect against missiles and drones. In particular, it makes it possible to intercept missiles from distances of up to 150 kilometers. A system deployed and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
This contract would be under negotiation since November, therefore, and the arrival of Benny Gantz on Moroccan soil. After this visit, the boss of IAI, Boaz Levy, would also have made several round trips between Israel and Morocco, sometimes accompanied by Amir Peretz, one of the leaders of the group, a native of Morocco.
The strained relations between Algeria and Morocco are no strangers to this acquisition. The Israeli media indeed recall that Algeria has Iskander missiles. However, the Barak MX system was used, during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, against these same missiles, and it obtained, according to IAI, a full and total success.
After having already acquired Israeli equipment from IAI, such as Heron and Bluebird drones, but also other combat vehicles, Morocco is therefore moving up a gear with the acquisition of a very advanced system, but above all excessively expensive, which few countries at peace try to obtain.