Demand soars for Israel’s battle-tested weapons tech despite global criticism of its wartime conduct

TEL AVIV, Israel — When Israeli protection officers approached Massivit final 12 months about utilizing its distinctive 3D printers to make navy drone elements, CEO Yossi Azarzar jumped on the probability.

Though the Israeli firm had been producing giant set items and different designs for the likes of Disney, DreamWorks and Netflix, the chance to as an alternative shortly churn out giant drone parts for the military was too good to disregard.

“I ended fascinated by Hollywood units,” Azarzar stated. “The leisure trade is a pleasant buyer — protection is a necessity.”

Enterprise has been booming for the Israeli arms sector, regardless of widespread criticism of the nation’s conduct in its wars in Gaza, with Hezbollah and with Iran. International locations which have vowed to shun Israeli weapons makers are nonetheless quietly inserting orders, in response to trade officers. And producers, together with some like Massivit with no earlier navy know-how, can present that their improvements are being frequently combat-tested and improved.

In accordance with Israel’s Protection Ministry, Israeli weapons gross sales have greater than doubled over the previous 5 years, with a report excessive of almost $15 billion in 2024. Whereas the ministry hasn’t launched general 2025 figures, main Israeli weapons makers, together with Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries, each reported double-digit gross sales progress final 12 months.

Greater than half of the Israeli arms trade’s gross sales are for missiles, rockets and air-defense programs. For the primary time, Israel has surpassed the UK in its share of world arms exports, making it the world’s seventh-biggest provider, in response to a March report by the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute.

“This large achievement is a direct results of the successes of the (military) and protection industries. … The world sees Israeli power and seeks to be a associate in it,” stated Israel’s protection minister, Israel Katz.

This 12 months’s Defense Tech Expo in Tel Aviv mirrored the rising worldwide curiosity in Israeli weapons, with producers selling arms and different tools formed by the nation’s current conflicts. Nevertheless it additionally highlighted the strain between showcasing the navy know-how and the political debate surrounding its use, with occasion protesters decrying the widespread destruction of Gaza as a testing lab for Israeli weapons.

Final 12 months, Spain canceled a deal for anti-tank missile systems offered by an Israeli firm’s subsidiary. Slovenia, in the meantime, announced it would ban the import, export and transit of all weapons to and from Israel in response to the nation’s actions in Gaza. After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 folks and taking roughly 250 others hostage, Israel retaliated, killing greater than 72,700 Palestinians, in response to the Gaza Well being Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. Some nations and human rights teams have accused Israel of struggle crimes.

Israel’s Protection Ministry says it makes use of its tools to defend the nation and its folks, and denies that it makes use of battlefields as testing grounds.

Human rights advocates, although, say Israel has deployed new weapons and know-how in the course of the struggle in Gaza, including in AI, big data and targeting.

“The regional struggle has drawn closely on Israel’s lethal playbook and supplied a boon to Israeli and different protection and know-how corporations capable of parlay the usage of their merchandise in Gaza to draw extra enterprise,” stated Omar Shakir, the chief director of DAWN, a U.S.-based group based by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi that pushes for human rights within the Center East.

Regardless of criticism that Israel’s weapons sector is profiting off applied sciences getting used and improved on the battlefield, it’s hardly alone, in response to consultants.

“International locations have needed to dramatically improve defenses due to the proliferation of world conflicts and so they want programs that can work. And most nations don’t have the time proper now to construct their very own protection programs domestically and shortly,” stated Seth J. Frantzman, an adjunct fellow on the Basis for Protection of Democracies who has coated Israel’s arms trade for a decade and wrote the e book “Drone Wars.”

Numerous nations need to Israel as a result of they’re seeing in actual time that these are munitions and programs that work, he stated.

For Massivit, gross sales have soared because it pivoted to creating drone elements for the navy, together with a 200% rise in inquiries from patrons since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on the finish of February, in response to Azarzar.

The corporate’s distinctive 3D printing know-how permits it to make giant elements for navy drones inside days as an alternative of weeks. Along with promoting to the Israeli navy, the corporate’s know-how has drawn curiosity from the protection and aeronautical sectors in Europe, the U.S., Southeast Asia and India, he stated.

Enterprise has additionally been good for different protection contractors.

Tomer Malchi, co-founder and CEO of ASIO, stated Israeli military orders for the corporate’s rugged smartphone unit, the Orion, have surged by 400% for the reason that struggle in Gaza began.

The telephones use maps, augmentation and synthetic intelligence to assist troopers plan missions, navigate and reply to real-time battlefield threats. ASIO lately signed a take care of a significant U.S. protection firm and is in talks with about 20 different nations, Malchi stated.

One space Israel’s Protection Ministry says can be a future precedence for innovation is taking down drones, which has confirmed difficult in the course of the struggle with Iran. Drones are exhausting to pinpoint on radar programs calibrated for recognizing high-speed missiles and will be mistaken for birds or planes.

Israel Weapon Industries, a neighborhood weapons maker, has developed a system to assist troopers extra precisely shoot down tactical drones. At a capturing vary in central Israel, an IWI teacher fired rounds at a makeshift drone to indicate how the system works. A pc chip embeds right into a soldier’s rifle, offering extra accuracy and effectivity and considerably lowering the affect of fatigue and different elements by permitting the set off to stay pressed.

The system, often known as Arbel, got here to market in 2024 and now has greater than two dozen nations utilizing it, stated Semion Dukhan, head of Europe for IWI.

Amongst IWI’s patrons are nations which have stated publicly that they gained’t do offers with Israel, Dukhan stated, although he wouldn’t identify them.

“Individuals and politicians say issues they should say … what they are saying will not be essentially what’s going on beneath the floor,” he stated, noting that on the finish of the day, nations wish to equip their folks with the very best gear.