Israel's arms industry produces environmentally-clean weapons, lead-free shells
Israel, Business, 11/19/1997

A number of Arab states have already signed arms deals with Israel's main arms industry, but officials at the Israeli Military Industry (IMI) refused to give details apart from saying that the deals had involved several million US dollars.

IMI is Israel's leading company in design, development and manufacture of innovative, high performance defense and military systems. Its products range from pistols and assault rifles to missiles and satellite communication systems.

In a rare visit accorded to foreign journalists, IMI opened its doors for foreign eyes to look into part of its product but most of what was projected to the 30 journalists or more remained within the known line of production. Many kinds of sophisticated weapons remain secret, and IMI officials are not allowed to speak about them at all. Their market, as such, is mainly the Israeli army and countries from abroad, which can buy these products only after the Israeli Defense Ministry issues its permission for the deal to go ahead.

The factory produces a new type of cluster bombs, but not the same type that Israel used during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. According to Avinoam Zefir, director of international marketing, the new type of cluster bombs is not internationally banned while the bombs used in Lebanon were made in the USA. He said the bombs have a self detonating device in order not to leave a contaminated area for advancing Israeli troops in times of war.

Environmentally-clean weapons are also produced in this factory. When Zefir spoke about this type of weapons, his speech sounded meaningless and one reporter asked what do you mean? Another said: "It is simple. These are weapons that only kill man but do hot harm nature." Without going into details, Zefir said his plant has started the production of new type of lead-free shells and bombs that are becoming popular gradually all over the world.

Famous for their Uzi and Galil assault guns, IMI have a wide range of sophisticated weapons including AFVs (armored fighting vehicles) and sophisticated front line tank ammunition, a variety of hi-tech missiles, including the anti-missile Arrow missile, in addition to some 30 percent of Israel's top Merkava tanks plus their newly-produced 120 mm barrels, and solid bridging systems. Part of the weapons produced by IMI were used by the allied forces against Iraq during the Gulf War and are in the service of the US army and navy.

Zefir admitted that the newly-introduce ban in the US on assault rifle imports has affected the export of IMI's major Uzi automatic assault rifles. He admitted that Uzis have become a major weapon in the hands of underworld and illegal activity not only in the US but also in other parts of the world but said that the fault is not that of IMI's but of the respective governments.

Zefir said IMI hopes to sell around 10,000 pieces of uzis to the US over the coming three to four years at an amount of some US $7 million. "It is an important part of our business but not crucial for the well being of the company," said Zefir who noted that 60 percent of their weapons go abroad while 40 percent go to Israel's army. Deadly weapons, said Zefir, can be found easily and not necessarily the specific type of uzis being used in gang wars in the US. "We really rely on the US authorities to monitor those sales while we try to work within the law and any attempt to put the blame on us is a mere exaggeration," he said. He expressed hopes that the Israeli government would not impose restrictions on their export while their competitors continue to find new markets for their product.

Asked how IMI chooses its clients, Zefir said that every single sale is conducted under very specific permission from the Ministry of Defense which monitors every request submitted by the IMI for export. "They make our life easy. They decide for us which countries we are allowed to sell to and what weapons we should sell them. If we are not sure of the final destination of our arms shipment we are not allowed to go ahead with the deal," he said in a reply to question on whether Israel fears that some countries might serve as channels to sell weapons to countries or groups that are hostile to Israel.

At least 80 countries buy weapons from Israel, but for IMI Switzerland is considered the largest. Zefir refused to go into details of what kind of weapons the Swiss army would be interested in, but his views were very interesting in projecting a new fact that even a country considered neutral like Switzerland is still very keen on having an army well-equipped with sophisticated weapons.

IMI has a cluster of plants all over in Israel such as in Ramat Hasharon near Tel Aviv, in Kiryat Shimona next to the borders with Lebanon, in Nazareth, in Haifa where the aircraft division is located, in Ramat Bega near Be'er Sheva, and near Ramlah. It has a marketing network in cities like Bogota in Latin America, Miami and Washington DC in the US, London, Stockholm, Bonn, Bern, Ankara, new Delhi and Bangkok.

Previous Stories:
  Gaza: a rapid improvement that moves slowly   (11/10/1997)
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