You’re in partnership with Raytheon on the Iron Dome, as well as some other projects. How is that relationship, and how has it eased the process of being able to work with the United States?
We have been working in the United States for more than 25 years, and the way that we are doing business — and we are very satisfied — is that we are working with the tier-one companies. We understand that at the end of the day the U.S. customer would like to see a U.S. entity. When you pick up the phone, you would like to have someone from the United States that will be able to give him the added value of, for example, cybersecurity and other classified issues.
So we are working with Northrup Grumman for more than 25 years on the Litening [targeting pod]. We are working with Raytheon on Iron Dome and David’s Sling. We’re working with BAE Systems on the remote control weapon system for the Navy. We are working with Lockheed Martin for our missiles and our Spice. So in a sense we understand that you have to work with those partners.
Speaking of David’s Sling, I know Rafael was asked by Switzerland to participate in a competition for missile defense, David’s Sling being the specific system the country was interested in. Rafael decided not to do that. Can you explain?
I wouldn’t say that Rafael decided not to do this, and I can’t get into all the details. As a matter of fact, the request was sent to the Israeli government.
And there was some contact between the Israeli government and Switzerland. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, but I hope we’ll still have an opportunity to do something like this in the future.
Can you elaborate on what happened?
I might have some assumption, but I prefer not to share it with you.
https://www.defensenews.com/top-100/2019/07/22/does-israels-rafael-foresee-export-potential/
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