2023-10-16 10:14:36
Thursday, September 28th, was a bright autumn day in Berlin. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius received his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant. There was no sign of the Hamas massacre in Israel eight days later. After the meeting, Pistorius spoke “without exaggeration of a historic day for our two countries”: Germany purchased the Arrow 3 missile defense system from its special assets for almost 4 billion euros – Israel’s largest arms export to date. Washington had to agree. The state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Boeing are jointly developing and building the ballistic missile interception system. “It is easier for us to sell to Germany because we share the same values and interests in many areas,” said Gallant.
Germany is by no means the Israelis’ only customer. For strategic reasons and in order to finance the increasingly expensive development of high-tech armaments, Jerusalem sold weapons to more countries than ever last year: while in 2020 they went to 42 countries, two years later there were already 61 nations, and for espionage technology and cyber systems even 83 countries . Last year, Israel’s official arms sales totaled a record $12.5 billion. Due to the war in Ukraine, Europe accounted for more than a quarter of purchases. Israel, the small country once known as an exporter of the Palestinian Jaffa orange, is now one of the world’s most important arms developers and sellers.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), the country with just 9.4 million inhabitants is number eight on the list of arms exporters. Calculated per capita, the number 27th country in the ranking of countries, measured by its economic output, has the second highest defense spending in the world after neighboring Qatar, but has held the top position for a long time. The country spends more than 4.5 percent of its gross domestic product on armaments in the conflict region. For comparison: Germany promises to clear the 2 percent hurdle, while US spending is officially around 3.7 percent. The Israelis’ most important customer countries are India, Azerbaijan, the highly armed city-state of Singapore and Vietnam.
Armed to the teeth
The Global Firepower Index offers one way to compare the military effectiveness of countries. It is based on more than 60 criteria such as the documented number of weapons, the financial resources of an army or membership in alliances. The USA, Russia, China and India lead the rankings, Israel is in 18th place, Germany, which is around ten times its size, has fallen to 25th place – although the Bundeswehr was still in fifth place in 2009. When it comes to tanks alone, Israel ranks 12th out of 145 nations, and 11th when it comes to combat aircraft, which is also where its artillery is ranked.
In other words, Israel is armed to the teeth. Israel’s own arms industry came into being not least because Israel’s former main supplier, France, imposed an arms embargo after the Six-Day War in 1967. In the digital age, weapons manufacturers benefit greatly from Israel’s globally recognized information technology. The country, which is poor in raw materials and in an extremely difficult geographical location, uses its comparative cost advantage through its human capital – good education and training bring growing advantages in the digital world. What’s more: Israel’s weapons are essentially undergoing a long-term test.
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