"Missiles will become Less Costly and More Accurate" - Amir Rapaport

by Amir Rapaport

Giora Katz, Rafael’s EVP Land & Naval Systems Division, reveals the Company’s strategy for the land systems category and describes some of the systems currently in the last stages of development. Exclusive interview in preparation for the GFID conference

In June 2015, Colonel (res.) Giora Katz will celebrate his second anniversary as EVP Land & Naval Systems Division at Rafael. The new division he established includes four administrations, and although it deals primarily with land systems, one of these administrations is in charge of the systems being developed for the benefit of the naval arena. It is the naval systems administration that links Katz to his military past – as before he was discharged into civilian life, he had served in senior positions in the IDF Navy.

The establishment of the Land & Naval Systems Division was a part of a comprehensive organizational revision process at Rafael, which included the establishment of parallel divisions in charge of the aerial and air-defense system categories.

“If we review what has changed at Rafael since the reorganization, I think that we can definitely identify the first buds of success, as the fact that the divisions focus on the clients leads to system specialization and creates a new potential that will grow even further over time,” says Giora Katz.

According to Katz, “As we had anticipated, all three divisions have systems, all of them have missiles and all of them operate within the integrated communication network. Rafael’s solid scientific infrastructure supports all of them.

“In the context of the organizational revision, all of Rafael’s resources were made available to all of the divisions simultaneously, and that provided a tremendous thrust for the utilization of existing capabilities and for the use of similar developments by parallel divisions. A tremendous force multiplier was established.

“Specifically, the four administrations within the Land & Naval Systems Division include one administration in charge of precision strike munitions; the field and maneuvering administration, in charge of most of the systems mounted on armored combat vehicles, including active and passive protection and energy and weapon systems; the naval systems administration and the administration for small unit capabilities, in charge of connectivity and inoperability and network-centric warfare for the benefit of combined-arms task forces from the brigade level down.

“In all of these administrations, we focus on the development of resources for improving high-precision strikes on land as well as at sea – and on survivability. Additionally, we develop ‘security’ systems for non-military needs, like marine security and border protection, and we do not use the standard term HLS for those systems, as we aim for state-of-the-art systems with highly advanced command and control capabilities. We do not enter projects that only require a fence and surveillance cameras. We do not have an added value there, so we do our best to deal with more substantial, system-wide projects whether they involve security for sensitive installations, complete border protection, protection for oil pipeline systems – we intend to provide new and unique capabilities to the field of border protection and small unit warfare capabilities to the land and sea arenas as well,” says Katz.

Giora Katz says further that the decision regarding this particular focus was reinforced by Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. “One of the undisputed queens of the combat operations in the Gaza Strip was our Trophy active protection system for tanks.”

What about the transition to the second generation of active protection? How does the development of the next generation of the Trophy system, which incorporates IMI’s Iron Fist system and the Radar system by IAI/Elta (as decided by IMOD) progress?

“We have been appointed by IMOD as the prime contractor for the development of the next generation, and we are currently endeavoring to incorporate IMI and Elta and produce the second generation system that would reflect the numerous advantages of the Trophy system.

“Naturally, the main requisite for success is for us to reduce the system costs. Trophy is the existing system at the moment. It is excellent and proved itself amazingly well during Operation Protective Edge. Its durability on the battlefield over a relatively long period of time, dealing with a very substantial amount of threats fired from all directions, was excellent. We cannot identify, worldwide, any competitor that even comes close to these proven active protection capabilities. In fact, it had taken more than 20 years to develop this system. It is a tremendous accomplishment for the Israeli defense establishment, and especially for MAFAT (The Weapon System & Future Infrastructure Research & Development Administration) at IMOD and for Rafael. This accomplishment is important because the world is currently saturated with antitank missiles to such an extent that unless you possess effective protection you will hardly be able maneuver.”

Is there interest in the acquisition of the Trophy system on the part of foreign armed forces?

“There is a lot of interest. We are beginning to receive requests for quotes and I have no doubt that the number of these requests will increase. Meanwhile, we are working constantly to improve the system. Many lessons were drawn from Operation Protective Edge. This system will improve constantly owing to technological progress and the need to cope with new threats. We have established an excellent foundation and we would like to hope that we remain the protection house of the IDF. Beyond its battlefield contribution, it has a tremendous business potential worldwide.”

Let’s talk about the actual missiles. One of the major success stories in Rafael’s history has been the Spike missile system. Do you envision a threat to the role of antitank weapons on the battlefield? For example, by unmanned armed rotorcraft systems that would replace the missile systems?

“First of all, I am never complacent with regard to the business aspects. As a division head at Rafael I am obliged to worry all the time and constantly monitor the way the battlefield changes. Your worst enemy is being complacent about your past achievements, only to realize that you had not supplied the right system and that your competitors have driven you out of the market.

“With regard to the ‘loitering’ systems and the missile world, the Spike system was really one of the greatest accomplishments of the defense establishment. Tens of thousands of these missiles were sold worldwide. The contribution of this missile to the IDF, to Rafael and to the State of Israel has been tremendous.

“Globally, we are currently identifying a number of phenomena. First of all, new players are entering the missile world and some of them even try to emulate the Spike missile. Additionally, other measures like the loitering systems are also entering this world. Eventually, you have to determine what your real working point is – where the market is going and where we have to go.

“In my view, the competition is, first and foremost, about reducing the product prices so as to enable more extensive distribution, and we must be alert. Secondly, there is a growing demand for increasingly more accurate systems. Today you can no longer afford to have your missile hit a point three meters away from the target, sometimes not even one meter away from the target. You must hit precisely the point specified so that subsequently you would not have to explain why you hit innocent parties.

“We are currently working very intensively on improving the accuracy and maintaining our ability to determine, until the very last instant, what we are going to hit, along with the ability to abort the mission until the very last moment. At the same time, we are working on the lethality of the missiles and toward reducing the price. Based on the extensive experience we gained in this field, we definitely come to the market with new and improved capabilities.

“We also have several developments of new capabilities that will ensure that we maintain our status as one of the world leaders in this field. One of these developments is the Spike-SR short range missile system. I cannot provide details about the clients of this missile system, but it has a market. This is a Spike missile with a very short range and numerous capabilities, priced lower than our past prices.”

New Projects

Giora Katz is unable to elaborate on all of the projects Rafael’s Land & Naval Systems Division is engaged in for obvious security reasons, but he did tell us that the “Nabut” project – an unmanned hovering rotorcraft for the battlefield – is progressing within IDF, too. At the same time, the development of the Iron Flame system is nearing completion.

“This is a highly accurate missile with a relatively large warhead on the scale of about 20 kg,” Katz says. “Its range is longer than 40 kilometers and it has a super-accurate guidance head. The project is in its final stages.”

Another project Katz referred to which involves out-of-the-box thinking is Project Smart Trigger. This system enables the user to designate a specific target on the battlefield using binoculars, and that target will be attacked by rear-area assets using a weapon launched by a platform chosen out of an extensive range of airborne, sea or land systems.

“You can designate the target using binoculars and then ‘order’ a missile launch, and you do not have to concern yourself as to where the missile would come from, as long as it hits the right target. The system is intended to provide the forces on the ground with maximum autonomous capabilities. Autonomous operation is one of our primary goals.”

Is the “Smart Trigger” system already operational or is it just an abstract idea?

“This thing is actually happening, and how! There are many additional developments around it, for the benefit of the small unit on the ground. We are also working on land robotics for the various activities, especially such robotic systems that would carry Rafael’s payloads and assist the strike capabilities and surveillance/detection capabilities.”

Do you believe in land robotics?

“I think that in this particular field the mistake thus far has been the attempt to provide the robotic vehicles with a full range of capabilities. They aspired for too much and you do not really need all that. In order to operate a ground robot to a range of 2,000 to 3,000 meters, you do not need robots that are capable of crossing deserts or negotiating extremely difficult obstacles.” 

Amir Rapaport

Source: http://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/content/missiles-will-become-less-costly-and-more-accurate

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