Israel’s IMI To Supply Precision Guided Rocket Systems To IDF

Israel's Defense Ministry signed an agreement for the purchase of precision-guided rockets and rocket systems from the state-owned arms manufacturer Israel Military Industries (IMI) to equip the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) artillery corps.

IMI would deliver "within a few years" an advanced integrated system "allowing precise hits by remote launching", Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday.

IMI Chairman Yitzhak Aharonovich noted, "The innovative rocket systems with which the IDF will be provided via this agreement express our company's technological abilities. The company excels in precise firing abilities and the precise targeting of ground targets".

According to the Defense Ministry, this agreement will improve Israel's abilities significantly, and will allow Israel to hit a target precisely, from a distance, at a relatively low cost per mission. The new rockets will use advanced technologies appropriate for the modern battlefield.

"The plan to create an array of precise rockets and missiles is gaining momentum," Liberman said. "Some of it is already being manufactured, and some are still being researched and developed. We are acquiring and developing precise firing systems which will allow us to empower the IDF's offense system and cover every spot in the region, with short- and long-range [missiles]".

Lieberman added that the contract with IMI was budgeted at "hundreds of millions of shekels".