Production of shells at the Elbit factory in Ramat Hasharon,/Ministry of Defense
It is true that a formidable Iranian threat was created against Israel, which was foiled, but we must also look at the more positive sides of the barrage of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft carrying 50 kg of explosives, as UAVs, in the Iranian attack on Israel at the beginning of the week. At the price of anxiety for the civilian population, great tension in the security, military, political, international system, Israel received, free of charge, no money, a living testing ground worth perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars. Beyond that there is the tremendous deterrence that Israel has achieved.
The development of defense systems against aircraft and missiles costs the Ministry of Defense in Israel together with the generous help from the American defense budget tens of billions of shekels over the years. The development includes the recruitment of quality personnel in which Israel excels, planning, sketching, feasibility, effective interaction between the intercepting system and the attack system, computer systems, control, the most advanced dedicated radar, and finally the highlight: simulations, experiment and more experiment to bring the systems to the ability to perform in space conditions and the terrain. The experiments, the deductions and the learning of the lessons cost a fortune, we need vast airspace and spaces that we have not tried before, far from the prying eyes of the enemy.
Tiny Israel conducted a successful experiment of the Arrow system on July 3, 2019. The "Wall" Administration at the Ministry of Defense, the Administration for Research, Development of Military Intelligence and Technological Infrastructures in the Ministry of Defense, together with the American Missile Defense Agency, MDA, conducted a series of successful tests of Arrow 3 in Alaska, far from the prying eyes of the enemy or of the powers that support the enemy, Russia and China, an experiment that cannot be carried out in Israel.
The air defense plant of the Aerospace Industry, "Integrated Combat Systems", as well as other Israeli defense industries participated in the test field. The Israeli system was able to intercept high-altitude targets outside the atmosphere during a series of tests, using the American AN\TPY2 radar, which demonstrated the ability Connectivity between the systems.
Naturally, launching the experimental target that the Arrow 3 system needs to then intercept into the atmosphere, which simulates ballistic missiles arriving from outside the atmosphere, costs a lot of money. Now the Iranians have come and are launching "Al Chai", no longer an experiment, no less than 110 ballistic missiles that came from the atmosphere towards specific targets in Israel, the air force base in Nebatim and other strategic sites. In this attack, Arrow 3's defense systems had to deal not with an experimental launch of one ballistic missile or several missiles, as in the experiments, but to identify, track, deal with and shoot down, simultaneously, dozens of missiles emerging from the atmosphere. It is no wonder that five of them managed to enter Israel. It is no longer a trivial test in the field of experiments, certainly not on the drawing board.
True, the Arrow 3 system had previously also managed to intercept a number of Iranian-made ballistic missiles launched from Yemen by the Houthis, Iran's proxies, but this time it was a wave of attacks, with dozens of missiles emerging simultaneously from the atmosphere. If dozens of ballistic missiles appeared of the atmosphere would have been carried out under the conditions of the development of Arrow 3, it would have cost an imaginal amount, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars. The Iranians gave Israel a "gift" of an experiment in space and field conditions. After the experiment in remote Alaska, with the costs of transporting all the equipment and operating it, Moshe Fatal, head of the "Wall" administration, said that 10 consecutive years of development "brought us to this moment." He was rightly
proud
of the fact that the experiment Held in Alaska, tens of thousands of km from Israel, is another unprecedented achievement of Arrow 3 to stand successfully against any threat. It is important to remember and remind about the Israeli industry that dozens of companies participate in the Arrow 3 project, not only the Aerospace Industry, but also Elbit Systems, Rafael and Tomer, all in cooperation with the American Boeing on the American side representing MDA, which was founded in 2002.
Now it is hoped that not only the Aerospace Industry Orders for the supply of the system are guaranteed from various countries in the world, but also many subcontractors of the excellent system that proved its capabilities this week.
We will remember that Israel's civilian R&D expenditures as a percentage of GDP are the highest in the world, 6.1% of GDP in 2022. South Korea is in second place with less than 5% and the OECD average is about 2.8%. It is true that this is civilian R&D, part of which is financed by "The government mainly for excellence in the universities, but it is a base for military R&D under the responsibility of the IDF, which enables the recruitment of outstanding technological personnel for defense projects. The IDF, which is joint with the IDF and the Ministry of Defense, cultivates outstanding and dedicated technological personnel for the fields of research and development in the IDF." and the security systems, including Talpiot and Psagot.
The investment in Israel's missile and defense systems is also bearing fruit. Germany already made a final announcement a few months ago about the purchase of the system due to fear of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Germany signed an agreement for the purchase of Arrow 3 systems in the amount of NIS 14 billion. The first Arrow 3 battery will be delivered to the German army at the end of next year, the aerospace industry has already received an advance with the approval of the German parliament, which guarantees employment for Elbit, Rafael and the government's Tomer, which produces rocket propulsion systems.
Against all the aforementioned advantages of the Iranian attack, the claim in a sort of half-defiance that the cost of Israel's defense to thwart the combined attack is estimated at NIS 4-5 billion seems a bit ridiculous to me. The very amount is ridiculous. What are Israel's defense tools for if not to use them on Judgment Day? Is it not to thwart an attack on Israel?
If the attack on Israel had been successful, it could have caused immediate damage of billions of shekels if not more, damage to human lives and most importantly damage to the prestige of Israel, the mental capacity of the people of Israel who are extremely depressed, in the face of the Iranian threat, not only through means of defense, we hope in the future Also for an Israeli attack. There is absolutely no need to calculate the cost versus the benefit of this case, poor grocery bookkeeping, after all, this is not an examination of the profitability of a canning factory or a furniture factory.
The foiling of the 130 cruise missiles infiltrating Israel by the Air Force, which intercepted 25 and the rest by other air forces, will also be learned, in the end when none of them managed to penetrate Israeli territory. Drawing conclusions in this area is also worth a lot of money. No plane A suicide bomber out of 170 unmanned aerial vehicles that Iran sent to Israel did not penetrate here. Iran will now be forced to give explanations to the Russians about the drones it sells to it in order to destroy the defense lines of the Ukrainians.
The destruction of Iranian drones was done effectively, which is now being learned by Israel and its allies, also by the air forces of the United States, Great Britain and Jordan. Intelligence about the progress of Iranian drones was provided in real time by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. Israel does not intervene in the war that has been going on between Russia and Ukraine for almost 26 months, but surely the Americans will provide the Ukrainians with new tools to understand and deal with the UAVs. Shahed 238 that have already been used against Ukraine.
Unfortunately, UAV technology was originally developed by Israel, which did not officially announce it at the time of development, and eventually the knowledge spread throughout the world. Now, as a double-edged sword, it is being used by the Iranians against Israel.
less investment
The rift in Israeli society for a year and a half has led to a decrease in motivation for investments. In 2023, the investments of factories in Israel in machinery and equipment, including information technology equipment, decreased by 5.4% after an increase of 4.1% in 2022. The investments originating from imports, which made up about 73% of the investments, decreased by about 10%, while the investments originating from local production increased by about 9%. The most serious development last year was a 28% decrease in investments in the fields of information and communication. For all those who worry about power outages - the investments for electricity supply, water services, sewage and waste treatment increased in 2023 by 132%. Imports of machinery and equipment decreased in 2023 by 4%, in the first quarter of this year, imports of machinery and equipment to Israel decreased by 7% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2022.
The high interest rate, the uncertainty, led to the continued decrease in imports and investments. Now that Israel has been caught red-handed in the area of missing equipment, ammunition, supplies, excessive reliance on American airborne aid during the "Iron Swords" war and dealing with the hail of Iranian missiles in the "Iron Shield", this requires a change in the thinking of the Israeli governments, more local production and a decrease in dependence American as much as possible, more stocks, more ammunition, more tanks, more APCs. For this we must reopen schools for these industries, invest in new Israeli factories, a 180 degree change in the thinking of a small and smart army, it turns out that it is also naked.
There will be buyers as well Abroad for military products that Israel develops under proven field conditions, such as Finland purchasing the "David Slingshot" system from Rafael, a system to intercept medium and long-range rockets and missiles, developed together with the American Raytheon. The Netherlands buys from Elbit 20 launch systems for rockets. India purchases military equipment in large volumes, in the last decade about 3 billion dollars.
China's attempts to expand its borders into India will only increase its acquisitions and cooperation with Israel in the coming decade. Time is pressing, while Rafael is on the brink of entering into operational use of an interception system using a laser beam, Magen-Or, Iron Beam, currently an operational pilot apparently, the British have just now announced that they have the world's first laser interception system, DragonFire, there will be a head competition In front of Israel.
Israel's new formula, in the view of its voice, should be more local production for a much larger army in the coming decade, more exports to the world to countries that Israel will characterize as able and capable of keeping the secrets of Israeli systems and thus getting the best, a lower cost per unit of weapons or equipment for the IDF as well. L. Without increased exports, the Israeli economy and the budget will have a hard time bearing the heavy burden of an increase in security expenses that the invasion and brutal massacre of Hamas in October 2023 and the barrage of missiles on April 14 forced upon us.