Israel produces a wide range of products from ammunition, small arms and artillery pieces to sophisticated electronic systems and the world’s most advanced tank.
Having to fight five major wars in its first four decades, Israel built a comprehensive standing army the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – and furnished it with an arsenal of highly advanced military hardware. The government, which owns three major defense firms, also encouraged the formation of private companies to equip the IDF. The development of a sophisticated defense industry 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.
Faced with a shrinking market for military hardware over the last decade and a half, Israeli defense concerns have made a concerted effort to employ their research and development teams in devising products for non-military markets and, more frequently, in adapting defense technology for civilian applications. Indeed, many of the most innovative products developed by Israel’s civilian high tech industry, especially in the field of telecommunications, trace their origins to military technology.
Trip to Israel 