The State of Israel would be nonexistent without its persevered will to survive. Along with every will, there are mechanisms set in place to foster that commitment to survival, and often times, those are which ultimately determine it. Israel’s ongoing fight for survival has proven that the only way to ensure existence is by being at the top of it’s game in military defense and weaponry.
This tiny country in the Middle East has paved the way to some of the most remarkable advancements in technology on national security and defense to date. Of course, conjuring up the best takes progress, and Israel’s early history is no different.
Already by 1945, Jews started to suspect that at any moment, they would have to be ready to fight for their independence against the Arabs, and to do so would be no easy feat. Different Jewish underground, military groups such as the Haganah and Lechi (Stern Gang) organized themselves and realized that the few pistols and bullets they stole from the British during the Mandate just wouldn’t cut it if a full-fledged war was close to inevitable. These realizations led the Haganah to establish a hidden ammunition factory, which they called “Machon Ayalon” (Ayalon Institute) which would produce the much needed bullets, in the advent of a war. Located on a kibbutz in Rechovot, this top-secret factory was built right near a British headquarters, literally undermining the authorities beneath their noses.
Everything about this mission made it seem unlikely that it would be able to remain secretive. And yet, the factory members were capable of keeping this factory disclosed from the public for three years until after the War of Independence. The most dangerous part was the knowledge that at any moment factory workers may get caught, let alone the fear that the gun powder they were encasing into the bullets would cause a massive explosion.
The different materials needed to create the ammunition were the metal alloy, bullet casing and gun power which were all imported into the factory and then assembled there. Encasing the gun powder into the bullets was the most dangerous job, and yet not once did an explosion occur, due to their careful handling – encased by the female members of the Haganah.
This is, but a glimpse at the world of Israel in it’s infancy, certainly doing whatever it could to stay afloat. At one time, Israel had to rely on European countries like France for weapons, and while today Israel still does trade with many countries, most of it’s military manufacturing and engineering takes place domestically. Today, the milestones Israel has reached in land, water and air defense is quite overwhelming. The Iron Dome Missile Defense system since being implemented in 2011 has saved tens of thousands of lives. This advancement alone has made the world look at Israel with mouths’ wide open, incredulous of what Israel’s top aerospace engineers created, an advancement that shoots down enemy missiles with the upmost precision. This air-defense system is designed to intersect short-range missiles (up to forty three miles away) with an unbeatable accuracy of 90%, and has started a new trend to create other advanced military defense systems such as the Iron Beam and David’s Sling.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is Israel’s primary manufacturer of the most sophisticated missile defense systems. Because aerospace and aviation are the new wave of maintaining security via monitoring and surveillance, IAI has produced a line of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), also known as drones, to keep an eye on Israel’s cities and population to detect any suspicious activities, as well as to collect intelligence from down below.
These aircrafts can range in size, from about a yard to those the size of mini-jets. The possibility of having no pilot on board, yet retain complete control via remote control and satellite, shows that Israel is trying to create safer and more secure methods for the military as well as for the civilian population. In place of a fighter jet, UAV’s can carry out armed attacks and target specific locations, without the attached fear of a pilot not making it back.
These are just slivers of the rich history that Israel stands to testify in it’s remarkable story of courage, where before her birth in 1948, Jews managed with whatever little they had to fight off her aggressors. Today in 2015, while the aggressors look eerily familiar, Israel is fierce and is ready to show it.