Israel’s economy is, in large part, mirroring what is happening elsewhere in the world – with job losses, factory closures and all the other symptoms of the global financial meltdown.
One sector though is defying all the odds.
Elbit Systems – an Israeli company that makes electro-optics, airborne systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and command and control systems – announced this week a record 4th quarter with profits rising 32.6 percent and strong forecasts for continued growth in the year ahead.
Their results presentation gave the company a chance to show off some of its latest technologies as you can see from the video below.
While the credit crunch is forcing governments, companies and individuals around the world to rethink spending across a huge range of goods and services, defence spending seems to be immune.
A ‘pop-psychologist’ would probably have a field day interpreting this trend, in an uncertain world where many of the basic pillars of our society seem to be tottering and the natural instinct to protect and defend comes to the fore.
But there’s more to it than that seemingly facile explanation because it’s not just the quantity of defence and security systems it sells that sets Israel’s defence industry apart.
The quality of the technology being developed by Israeli companies like Elbit, Rafael and IAI might be changing the nature of modern warfare.
As Israel’s recent offensive in Gaza clearly demonstrated, being able to wage a war while keeping your own losses to a minimum is an integral part of modern military strategising.
While there was plenty of old-fashioned soldiering in Israel’s offensive, there is no doubt that the use of unmanned drones, state-of-the art surveillance and increasingly sophisticated weaponry was key to Israel’s ability to limit its casualties to a handful while inflicting a heavy toll of casualties and damage on Gaza.
In his fascinating recent book, Wired for War, Brookings Institution fellow P.W. Singer describes the moment when U.S. troops closed in on Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay at a villa in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
The whole operation was tracked in real-time by an unmanned drone overhead that sent live pictures back to Qatar where soldiers described the scene as ‘like a Super Bowl party’ with off-duty soldiers dropping in, some carrying snacks and sodas, to watch the ‘show’.
Singer notes how far removed this is from U.S. Civil War General Robert E. Lee’s warning: “It is good that we find war so horrible, or else we would become fond of it”.
In the interview transcribed here , Singer tells the story of a young, would-be soldier who fails to make it as a helicopter mechanic in the U.S. military because he did not graduate from high school.
Despite his educational short-comings, the 19-year-old finds his niche in the army as a remote drone pilot – using skills he mastered playing video games – and eventually ends up training others how to control UAVs on surveillance or attack missions from afar.
The adaptation of video gaming skills to modern warfare is part of a trend that is redefining not just how we fight wars but how we think of them as well.
So maybe, in light of all this scary conjecture about robots fighting robots in some hellish sci-fi aramageddon, its comforting that some Israeli defence companies are relying on far more traditional means to sell their product, which if this video is anything to go by, involves traditional-looking missiles draped in traditional flowery garlands.
Or maybe this ‘tongue-in-cheek’ video produced by Rafael is in fact a frightening glimpse into the future where our robot weapons are fetishised in Bollywood-style dance numbers and no self-respecting home should be without some form of robotic killing machine.
(Photo: A Royal Marine poses for photographers with the Unmanned Vehicle Robot, Testudo, at the launch of the Defence Technology Plan in London February 26, 2009. Media were invited to the launch of the Defence Technology Plan, which was the first time the Ministry of Defence has publicly revealed its research needs. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor)
