Special Focus – Israel
"In order for six million Israelis to face the quantitative asymmetric population imbalance with their potential enemies, they must maintain an asymmetrical qualitative edge and create its own high sophisticated defence industry..." Giora Shalgi Former CEO of Rafael Israel Armament Development Authority had stated in one of its articles in Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and actually the Israeli defence industry follows this motto. Israeli created a viable and advanced defense industry which plays an important role in the international market.
Despite its small size and overwhelming political problems, and perhaps even because of them, Israel has succeeded in developing what can someone probably, describe as the most powerful military establishment in the Middle East. This superiority may be attributed to Israel's huge advantage in skilled human resources and technology and, in up to a certain point, to the military support that it receives from the USA. The starting point for the metamorphosis off the Israel's Aerospace and Defence industry infrastructure was the 1967 Six-Day War. During the war, France imposed an embargo on arms sales to Israel, including the Mirage planes already on order from the Dassault aircraft factory. As a result Israel started to develop its own industry capabilities. Driven from the outmost motive, survival, Israeli Aerospace and Defence industry flourished and progressively become one of the most important industries globally.
Nowadays, Israel produces a wide range of products from ammunition, small arms and artillery pieces to sophisticated electronic systems, UAVs, and probably the world's most advanced tank (Metkava). The government, which owns three major defense firms, encourage the formation of private companies. This is substantially leads to the creation of a rather competitive environment that helps the development of a sophisticated defence industry, which, inevitably led to exports, which today account for a majority of its revenues and allows the country's defense industry to compete against some of the largest companies in the world for foreign contracts, in addition to producing many of the arms needed for Israel's own defense.
Through this present and the next newsletter, Epicos' team of editors will try to present the main guidelines of Israeli Defense Industry and provide adequate information for the rather dynamic environment that Israel companies create.
In this newsletter you will find an exclusive interview with Mrs Bina Bar - On, Director General of the Industrial Cooperation Authority (ICA) in Israel . Additionally, in the newsletter that it will be released next week there will be a thorough presentation of one of the most important Israeli Aerospace and Defence companies (Elbit Systems) and an exclusive interview with Joseph Ackerman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Elbit Systems that Epicos managed to ensure for its readers.
This article originally appeared in the newsletter of Epicos.com – The Portal for Aerospace & Defence Professionals. Its appears herein with their kind permission.