Just as Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, had in mind when he established what was to become the defense technology group Rafael, the fruits of the company’s innovation protect the country in real-time as its conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah forces continues.
As critical as Rafael's contribution to Israel’s defense may be, Rafael CEO Yoav Tourgeman, who took office in December, recognizes that his team needs to keep their eyes on the future too.
“Even though there is an emergency need today, we are not wavering in our efforts to keep researching and developing technology for future needs,” he told AIN at the Farnborough Airshow. “The idea is to always keep a survival edge through scientific superiority.”
The edge delivered through systems such as Rafael’s Iron Dome air and missile defense system is making a difference. At the start of the 2006 Lebanon War, Hezbollah fired about 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, inflicting 57 fatalities.
In the first week of the current conflict, around the same number of rockets launched toward Israel at a time when the Iron Dome was not yet fully deployed, resulting in five fatalities. “Since then there have been around 16,000 rockets and just three fatalities, and Iron Dome has meant that life can go on there,” Tourgeman said.
Ship-based C-Dome Destroys Threats
In April the Israeli Navy achieved its first combat interception of a hostile target that posed a threat in southern Israel using Rafael’s C-Dome system, which is the Iron Dome’s naval counterpart. The ship-based system can deal with threats that could include rockets, cruise missiles, sea-skimming missiles, and drones.
Rafael also remains focused on air superiority, having launched its new Ice Breaker advanced long-range strike missile at the 2023 Farnborough show. Last year the company introduced its Reccelite wide-area scanning intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system to give air combat platforms a clear picture of threats on the ground.
Rafael gathers real-time data on the combat performance of its technology to support rapidly executed improvements. Around 20% of its highly educated workforce have deployed with the Israel Defense Force. Tourgeman explained how, for example, pilots and tank commanders call their colleagues in the laboratory to report issues and suggest improvements.
The conflict has doubtlessly focused the attention of other countries facing mounting threats in their backyards. “We do realize that tensions in the world are increasing and so [other nations] are looking for systems that are really combat-proven,” Tourgeman said.
“There are two major outcomes that I see from both the Ukraine-Russia war and our conflict,” he added. “The first is the large quantities of munitions needed and the duration of the war, and the second is the need for agility. We’ve had to adjust things in a few days using data that we collected automatically from our systems.”