Elbit Systems President and CEO Bezalel (Butzi) Machlis announced a dramatic move to expand Israel’s defense independence at the Herzliya Conference at Reichman University on Tuesday night. Against the backdrop of lessons from recent wars, the company is significantly ramping up ammunition production at its facilities across Israel, primarily at the Ramat Beka site in the Negev. Machlis emphasized the goal is to ensure Israel won’t depend on foreign suppliers during emergencies.
1+The announcement comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Israel’s independence and separation from American aid on the Patriots program last night. “Yes, I want to do a 10-year gradient. We very much appreciate the aid. When I was first elected in 1996, I came to Congress and for the first time said we’re going to make a free-market revolution and as a result we’ll separate from economic aid, and everyone’s jaws dropped. Everyone said look at this prime minister—giving up aid for a headline. We can do it, because our economy will soon reach a trillion dollars, and we can finance ourselves—already next year.”
Elbit’s Moves
To meet growing development and supply demands in Israel and worldwide, the company announced it has absorbed about 2,000 new employees over the past year and plans to recruit another 2,000 workers by 2026. Machlis noted that the length of the wars and the scale of ammunition use require completely different industrial preparation, with unprecedented production rates. He said the company is proactively recruiting Jewish talent from abroad in cooperation with the Jewish Agency, alongside absorbing wounded soldiers.
1+Addressing new technological threats, Machlis highlighted the massive work being done in cooperation with the Defense Ministry, MAFAT (the Defense Ministry’s research and development directorate), and defense industries to develop advanced solutions against the drone threat and loitering munitions. He estimated that directed energy weapons and lasers will provide a central solution in coming years, especially against drone swarms. He added that the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, and robotics in defense systems is becoming more significant than ever, as part of lessons from the fighting in Ukraine.
The Elbit CEO also addressed international boycott attempts, primarily the storm surrounding Israeli companies’ participation in the Eurosatory exhibition in France. According to him, attempts to harm the company achieved the opposite result—the publicity Elbit received was greater than any marketing campaign they could have done. He shared that during the exhibition, Jewish employees from competing European defense industries approached him, expressing a strong desire to immigrate to Israel and join the local defense effort.