Rafael advances defense tech amid ongoing conflicts

In April, the Israeli Navy achieved its first combat interception using Rafael’s C-Dome system—the naval counterpart to Iron Dome—against a hostile target threatening southern Israel. The ship-based system can counter threats including rockets, cruise missiles, sea-skimming missiles, and drones.

Rafael continues to prioritize air superiority with innovations such as the Ice Breaker advanced long-range strike missile introduced at the 2023 Farnborough show. Additionally, last year saw the launch of Reccelite—a wide-area scanning intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system designed to provide air combat platforms with detailed ground threat information.

Real-time data collection on combat performance supports rapid improvements in Rafael's technology. Approximately 20% of its workforce has deployed with the Israel Defense Force. Tourgeman noted that pilots and tank commanders frequently communicate directly with laboratory colleagues to report issues and suggest enhancements.

Tourgeman acknowledges that other countries facing increasing threats are taking note of Rafael's combat-proven systems. “We do realize that tensions in the world are increasing and so [other nations] are looking for systems that are really combat-proven,” he said.

“There are two major outcomes that I see from both the Ukraine-Russia war and our conflict,” he added. “The first is the large quantities of munitions needed and the duration of the war; and the second is the need for agility. We’ve had to adjust things in a few days using data that we collected automatically from our systems.”