Israel Announces Plans for New Domestic Production of Air-Launched Munitions

Israel is creating an additional domestic production capacity for air-launched munitions and an associated raw materials plant after the Biden administration delayed the delivery of some munitions following the October 7 terror attack. On January 7, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced two arms deals, valued at $275 million, with Israeli defense company Elbit – the most recent in a series of domestic purchases that Jerusalem has made to backfill tens of thousands of munitions expended in Israel’s war against Iran’s regional terror axis.

Defense Ministry Director General Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir said the Elbit deals will move Israel towards independence in “domestic production of heavy air munitions and establishing a national raw materials plant.” Full Israeli independence in the production and resourcing of multiple air-launched munitions in sufficient quantities may prove challenging to establish and maintain, and Israel will remain dependent on Washington for many other defense systems, including aircraft and helicopters.

Deals Part of Larger Domestic Defense Production Effort

The Biden administration has held up the delivery of some munitions due to disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem. After extensively employing air-launched munitions, Israel needs to replenish its stockpiles, prepare for future conflicts, and reduce the risk of future supply interruptions. In addition to building the munitions domestically, Israel seeks to establish a “national raw materials plant to produce raw materials that were sourced mainly from abroad before the war.”

This is part of a larger trend focused on increasing Israeli domestic defense production. In December 2024, the Ministry of Defense signed a multi-billion dollar contract with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to expand procurement of Arrow-3 air defense interceptors, which are designed to intercept ballistic missiles. The Ministry of Defense is also placing large orders for Israeli-manufactured drones.

Israel Angling To Increase Defense Exports

Concurrently, the Ministry of Defense is reportedly easing restrictions on defense exports to allow Israeli companies to increase production capacity and export worldwide. Following Russia’s 2022 large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Israeli companies have finalized deals to sell defensive systems to several European countries. Germany finalized a deal with Israel for the Arrow-3 air defense system in November 2023. In December, IAI signed a deal to sell the Barak MX air defense system to Slovakia.

The Jewish state has secured these deals with foreign governments even as some countries have cut off arms sales to Israel and boycotts have prevented Israel from participating in arms exhibitions in France and Chile. The export of Israel-built munitions and systems will be necessary to sustain demand for the new domestic industrial capacity that Israel is creating. Otherwise, it will be costly and difficult to maintain the industrial capacity once it meets the IDF’s needs. As with the United States, arms exports can strengthen Israel’s defense research, development, and production capabilities further, potentially lower unit costs, and help ensure the domestic production capacities can be retained when the IDF’s demand for the respective systems wanes temporarily. That ensures the domestic production capacity for the respective system is still there when IDF demand returns.

Continued Challenges and Urgent Priorities

Despite Israel’s efforts to increase its domestic production capacity for key munitions, Israel will remain dependent on the United States for major weapons platforms that are critical to Israel’s survival, such as fighter jets, air refueling aircraft, and helicopters, among others. While Israel seeks to replenish its munitions stockpiles, decoupling from major platforms produced in the United States is not feasible. Nevertheless, Israel is wise to attempt to develop as much domestic production capacity as possible for the systems most likely to be withheld in a future conflict, and that includes ground and air-launched munitions. Jerusalem should also develop redundancies where possible to prepare for scenarios in which the United States is engaged in other global conflicts and specific munitions’ availability or supply chains become strained. Even as Israel undertakes these vital efforts, it is important to focus primarily on the steps necessary to prepare for what may become an unavoidable need to strike Iran’s nuclear program in the near future.

Enia Krivine is the senior director of the Israel Program and the National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Follow her on X @EKrivine. Bradley Bowman is senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at FDD. Follow him on X @Brad_L_Bowman. For more analysis from Enia, Bradley, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.