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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
The manufacture of small weapons and explosives for the
forerunners of the IDF had begun in secret arms factories during
the 1930s. The War of Independence was fought with Sten guns,
grenades, light mortars, antitank guns, flamethrowers, and light
ammunition, much of it produced in Israel with surplus United
States machinery acquired as scrap after World War II. After
independence and the departure of the British, massive imports of
wartime surplus aircraft, tanks, and artillery were possible. The
Israeli arms industry made a specialty of upgrading and overhauling
such equipment. The Israeli-designed Uzi submachine gun, adopted by
the security forces of many nations, was a major export success,
providing needed revenue for the arms industry. The Czechoslovak
arms agreement with Egypt in 1955 and the 1956 War gave further
impetus to weapons production. The decision to become a major
producer of armaments was inspired by the arms embargo imposed by
France--then Israel's main supplier of arms--just before the
outbreak of the June 1967 War. By the mid to late 1970s, indigenous
suppliers were delivering an increasing share of the IDF's major
weapons systems. These systems included the Reshef missile boat,
the Kfir fighter plane, the Gabriel missile, and the Merkava tank.
The Kfir, based on plans of the French Mirage III acquired
clandestinely through a Swiss source, was powered with a United
States General Electric J79 engine, but embodied Israeli-designed
and Israeli-produced components for the flight control and weapons
delivery systems.
Domestic production reduced foreign exchange costs for imports,
provided a degree of self-sufficiency against the risk of arms
embargoes, and facilitated the adaptation of foreign equipment
designs to meet Israeli requirements. A high concentration of
well-qualified scientists, engineers, and technicians, a growing
industrial base, and a flow of government resources toward military
research and development facilitated the rapid expansion of locally
produced military equipment. Officials asserted that spinoffs from
the arms industry, especially in electronics, had stimulated the
civilian high technology sector, thus contributing indirectly to
export earnings. This claim has been disputed by Israeli economists
who concluded that the US$700 million spent annually on military
research and development would have produced five times the value
in export earnings had it been spent directly on civilian research
and development. Even among government leaders, there was growing
realization that the defense industry had become too large and that
the government should not be obliged to come to the rescue of large
defense firms in financial difficulty.
Data as of December 1988
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