Defense Ministry Signs Deal to Aquire Advanced Self-Steering Missiles
By Yona Schnitzer/TPS • 27 August, 2018
The Israeli Defense Ministry signed a deal with Israel Military Industries (IMI) on Monday, to develop and purchase advanced precision ACCULAR surface to surface rockets.
The new missiles are set to be guided by GPS and will have remote steering capabilities, which, in some cases will nullify the need for a pilot to fly them to the their destination – both mitigating risk to Israeli pilots, as well as cutting financial costs of such missions. As most of Israel’s conflicts take place in urban areas, the new missile is set to vastly improve the IDF’s operational capabilities, as well as significantly increase its potential fire power.
The deal, worth hundreds of millions of Shekels, came following Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s decision to equip the IDF with both long and short range advanced missiles.
“We are turning the IDF into a stronger, more diverse and smarter army,” Liberman tweeted after the announcement. The tweet came shortly after a previously deleted one by the Liberman, in which he said that the missiles “can reach any spot in the Middle East.”
IMI Systems Chairman Yitzhak Aharonovitch said: “The state of the art rocket systems the IDF will receive as a result of this deal are testament to IMI’s technological capabilities, which put an emphasis on the ability to fire accurately, to strike at a variety of ground targets.”