A secret flight reveals: Russia is surrounded by Israeli air defense systems

Israeli air defense systems envelop Russia

A Ukrainian Antonov 124, the heaviest cargo plane in service, recently transported three Rafael-made Spider batteries from Israel to Georgia – as reported by the Ukrainian Militarny website. Such a move is interesting, because both Georgia and Rafael have not announced a new Spider deal or even the equipment. The intriguing flight that departed from Tbilisi crossed the skies of Turkey to Georgia, apparently without Ankara even being aware of what it was carrying.

In general, Raphael’s relationship with Tbilisi has been going on for many years. Georgia purchased the first Spider system in 2008, when it was an SR model that uses Python 5 and Derby missiles. According to foreign publications, about ten countries in the world already operate the Spider system. The first of the NATO members to purchase it was the Czech Republic, in the Middle East it is operated by the United Arab Emirates, in North Africa by Morocco and in the Far East – the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore.

The event in Georgia reflects how the countries that surround Russia are equipping themselves with air defense, and especially that made by Israel. Back during the war, the Spider system was awarded at the end of June a tender by the Ministry of Defense for the purchase of an air defense system for short and extremely short ranges in the amount of approximately 1.9 billion euros. To all of these we can add, among other things, Finland, which purchased Rafael’s David catapult in 2023 for 316 million euros, and above all of them – the Arrow 3 system of the Aerospace Industry, which became operational last week in Germany.

The Israeli startups are targeting the USA

Israeli defense exports are growing in all companies, while data from the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) indicate that 34% of Israeli defense exports between 2020-2024 ($60.3 billion in total, according to CBT) were to India, 13% to the USA and 8.1% to the Philippines. In the shadow of the American security establishment’s appeal to start-ups at the expense of the large defense industries, Elron Ventures held an event on “Landing in America – what defense start-ups must know”, with Marks Patterson, a partner at Pillsbury, and Justin Rubin, a senior consultant at the firm.

“At Elron, we have turned to investing in companies in the early growth stages of recruitment,” said Lisia Bacher-Manoch, chairman of Elron. “We invest in cyber, AI and diptech, and strive to find the way with them to American consumers. We are here to help companies expand their presence.” Elron’s portfolio includes, for example, Wonder Robotics, which develops smart autonomous navigation solutions for eVTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) UAVs, and CyberRidge, which develops photonic layer security technology for fiber optics, which protects against interception including quantum threats.

Yaniv Schneider was appointed CEO of Elron in January, after for many years he managed Rafael’s development center in Tel Aviv. “When I was on the other side of Rafael, I believed in the integration of startups in defense and diptech. The start-ups can encourage significant technologies. When I joined Elron and we invested in Difenstack, we realized that the American market is critical for Elron’s startups to grow. There is a big challenge in entering the US, but the potential is great, as is the value that we, together with Rafael, give to our entrepreneurs.”

China is developing Egypt’s offensive capabilities

Egypt has been working in recent years to expand its security independence in general and through China in particular. In a new and particularly strategic step, the “Arab Organization for Industrialization” (AOI) which belongs to the Egyptian government and the Norinco company, one of the largest in China, signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint production of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles. The same agreement includes the transfer of Chinese components to the facilities of the Egyptian National Company, which will significantly increase the dependence of the al-Sisi regime on Beijing.

At the same time, the parties have already announced the launch of the Hamza 2 attack drone, which is a local version of the Chinese ASN-209 model. Hamza 2 is intended both for attack missions with precision weapons and for collection missions. Although Cairo and Beijing did not specify whether the drone is part of the overall agreement, there is no doubt that it also reflects the tightening relationship.

Last week, the al-Sisi regime celebrated a show of strength in New Cairo, with the EDEX defense exhibition, in which 450 companies from more than a hundred countries took part. Israel, as expected, did not participate, neither did Iran. In contrast, many Turkish companies came, while Azersila, a government security company, came from Azerbaijan. The same company signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation with the Israeli Ari Arms, which is owned by Avihai Stolero and Oren Ankonina, in September of last year.

Xi Jinping’s copying of the Iranian martyr 136

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles around the world is breaking records, with the aim being to create extremely cheap means. One of the best known examples of this trend is the Iranian Shahad 136, whose price is estimated at about 30 thousand dollars per unit. Often, for the purpose of intercepting it, weapons are used that may cost ten times more per unit – and even more. This resulted in a situation where many countries are copying the Shahed 136, the latest of which is China with the Long M9, which has already passed its first test.

The information coming from China indicates that the intended missions of the Long M9 are also the same as those of the Shahed 136, while it can carry a payload of about 50 kg, for a range of about 1,620 km. The wingspan of the suicide drone is 2.5 meters, its weight without cargo is 62.5 kg, and the maximum take-off weight is about 200 kg. Its cruising speed is 53 meters per second, with the maximum speed being 62 meters per second.

The Chinese learned from the Iranians another method of expanding military means: turning merchant ships into military ships. As part of this, the Chinese Navy took a Ro-Ro ship, i.e. one designed to transport cars, and converted it into one that carries the local air defense system using the LY-1 laser. In Israel, where the “Or Eitan” laser system will be delivered at the end of the month, it is hoped that the air defense system will be upgraded using it in the future also at sea.

Not just an arrow: German defense procurement is soaring

The budget committee of the German Bundestag recently approved 11 significant defense projects totaling more than 2.5 billion euros, which brought the total procurement expenditures since the beginning of the year to more than 33 billion euros on 73 projects. The extensive scope of equipping reflects Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ statement that the German defense budget will reach 3.5% of GDP in 2029.

The latest ventures included, among other things, expanding the purchase of G95 rifles, missiles for F-35 aircraft and collection systems based on artificial intelligence. One of them is Uranus AI, which is designed to collect massive amounts of information accumulated from UAVs, satellites and radars, and analyze it. The main German attention in its use is for the benefit of the Ukrainian front. The system will first be placed in a German battalion stationed in Lithuania as part of the NATO alliance, with Uranus AI technology gradually reaching all German battalions.

German law states that any purchase over €25 million requires Bundestag approval. Therefore, it is also required for the procurement of missiles for F-35 aircraft from the Norwegian company Kongsberg. As far as the G95 is concerned, Berlin decided to purchase about 250,000 rifles from Keller and Koch, after “only” about 120,000 were approved in the parliament at the end of 2022.