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Abstract
Israel is currently one of the world’s leading exporters of defence goods and services. Its defence industries originated in the covert workshops of the Hagana and other resistance groups in the pre-independence era of the 1930s, supplying the pre-state armed forces with light weapons. Mainly relying on imported weapons, the French arms embargo in 1967 came as a shock to Israel’s leadership and public, causing a shift in policy towards self-sufficiency in major battlefield platforms (combat aircraft, armoured vehicles and warships) through indigenous research, development and fabrication. This policy of self-sufficiency was later modified to apply only to such weapons or systems that could not be obtained from abroad either for political or technical reasons. It can be expected that Israel defence industries now will focus more on sophisticated PGM’s and battlefield robotics, whilst the Government will strive to fully privatize the remaining state owned defence industries. How successful this will be remains to be seen.
Notes
1. The origins and early history of Israel’s defence industry is taken from Evron (Citation1980).
2. For a brief history of Elta Systems see “Jobs at Elta Systsems: IAI,” n.d. https://ww.dialog.co.il/tools/hitech-companies-in-Israel/working-for-elta; For a brief description of the current structure of the company see,”Elta,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elta.
3. For a detailed history of Rafael, see Munia Mardor “Rafael – in the tracks of R&D for Israel’s security” Israel Ministry of Defence Publishing House, 1981 (in Hebrew).
4. Producing the tank at the IDF shops was criticized as overly expensive. It was also argued that it makes the tank less attractive as an export item due to its military provenance (Egozi Citation2003) https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2829919,00.html.
5. Zakheim’s book tells the story of US pressure to cancel the Lavi.
6. Rabin’s view on the role of Israel’s defence industries as described here is based on Rabin’s statements during various meetings attended by the present author during the late 1980s, and on the present author’s interview with Brig. General (Res.) Hagai Regev, Rabin’s ADC (aide-de-camp) from 1984 to 1989. Also see Inbar (Citation1999, pp. 111–112).
7. The destruction of the Syrian GBAD system (Operation Mole Cricket 19) took place in 9 June 1982, see Uri Milstein (Citation2016).
8. For a concise and fairly accurate history of Elbit Systems, see “Elbit Systems” in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbit_Systems.
9. Israel has had the ability to convert 26.3% of annual Foreign Military Financing grants from dollars to shekels for defence production and purchases in Israel. However, according to the terms of the 2019–2028 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Israel and the US, (signed September 14, 2016) Israel’s ability to spend FMF funds on military equipment produced in Israel will gradually be phased out between FY2024 and FY2018 (Sharp Citation2016, p. 6).
10. For later history of Israel's defence industry as well as many useful insights about its evolution see Lifshitz (Citation2011).
11. Information concerning Israel Defence Export Act and DECA is from the DECA website (About DECA Citation2016) https://www.exportctrl.mod.gov.il/ExportCtrl/ENGLISH/About+DECA/.