Despite continued uncertainty over levels of military spending by governments worldwide, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is betting big on achieving further growth in the defense sector. In an interview ahead of this week’s Paris Air Show, the group’s president and CEO Joseph Weiss told AIN that IAI has a technological edge in an era of changing defense technology needs, and it intends to exploit that edge.
“There is almost no conventional war these days and the different nature of confrontations around the world requires a new approach. We see opportunities from this changing environment, especially in areas such as cyber warfare and homeland security,” said Weiss. “Today there is growing demand for low-cost national level defense programs and that means new opportunities for technology such as more sophisticated radars and other cutting-edge technology that could allow us to strengthen our market share at a time of shrinking budgets. So we are investing heavily in defense research and development.”
Much of the defense R&D investment at IAI (Chalet 210, Static A9) is going into further developments of conformal airborne early warning and control (CAEW), air-to-ground surveillance and signals intelligence platforms. Other areas of focus include air defense systems, the Barak missile and robotics.
In the cyber warfare domain, IAI is developing new early warning sensors that will alert armed forces about intrusion threats. This work is being done in technology centers in both Israel and Singapore. “We’re competing for requirements both inside Israel and outside, so doing this work purely as IAI would be a limitation,” said Weiss. Lockheed Martin is also a key partner in this sector.
Over and above IAI’s traditionally strong export markets in southeast Asia, the group is seeing growing potential in South America and Africa. In Brazil, the company is providing for the first time in that country over-the-horizon radars that can give detection up to around 200 km.
At the same time, IAI is determined to reinvigorate its civil aircraft business by consolidating all these activities into one group that it hopes will be more flexible and profitable. The new division includes IAI’s Bedek Aviation freighter conversion specialist, which Weiss acknowledged has been struggling, as well as the commercial aviation group that is partnered with Gulfstream in building the G150 and G280 business jets, and a large part of its aeronautical engineering group.
Still to be absorbed into the new civil group is IAI’s Taxibot aircraft tractor, which has now started commercial operations with Lufthansa at Frankfurt Airport following approval earlier this year by the European Aviation Safety Agency. The hybrid electric vehicle, which moves aircraft to and from airport gates without using a towbar, was developed by IAI in partnership with Lufthansa LEOS.
New Business Jet
Weiss also confirmed that IAI is looking to be involved in the development of a new business jet. “We’re still looking at business jets to see whether there are niches we could penetrate to get us back to the Tier 1 supplier position,” he told AIN.
Meanwhile, while Bedek’s activities in converting passenger airliners to freighters has been fairly slow of late, IAI believes that lower fuel prices could revive interest in cargo conversions and it believes that service entry of Boeing new 737 Max narrowbodies will open opportunities for older 737 freighter conversions. It also views older 777s as a target market.
Bedek’s new business plan also calls for it to be more involved in subassembly manufacturing, and it is looking to develop new products in this sector. At the same time, it is seeking to promote its maintenance, repair and overhaul capability, and in this area it is taking steps to reduce its cost structure.