Rafael Advanced Defense Systems

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. (Hebrew: רפאל - מערכות לחימה מתקדמות בע"מ) is an Israeli defense technology company. It was founded as Israel's National R&D Defense Laboratory for the development of weapons and military technology within the Israeli Ministry of Defense; in 2002 it was incorporated as a limited company.

Rafael was established in 1948 as the Science Corps (Hebrew: חיל המדע, known by the acronym HEMED, Hebrew: חמד) under the leadership of Shlomo Gur. It was renamed the Research and Design Directorate (

אגף הפיתוח והתיכנון‎) in 1952. In 1952 David Ben-Gurion decided to split the activities of HEMED into two agencies. The pure scientific research was left with HEMED, while the development of weapons was placed into the new EMET agency.

In 1954 Ben-Gurion decided to change the name of EMET to RAFAEL (Hebrew: רשות לפיתוח אמצעי לחימה, lit. 'Armament Development Authority'). It was reorganized as Rafael in 1958.

In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin asked Amos Horev to become chairman of the board of Rafael, following many years in which Horev had served as chairman of Rafael's advisory committee. Horev served as chairman until January 2001.

During the early 1990s Rafael was operating at a loss (peaking in 1995, with a loss of $120 million on a turnover of $460 million). Therefore, it was decided to restructure the organization and start operating Rafael as a company. Initially the new company had three discrete divisions, each operating as a profit center, with a separate balance sheet presented to the newly formed management board.

The restructuring was completed in 2002 when Rafael was formally incorporated as a limited company (although still as a government-owned corporation), while maintaining its technological capabilities through an investment of about 10% of turnover in R&D programs. In its first year as a limited company, Rafael earned a $37 million profit on $830 million in sales. By 2016, Rafael reported annual net profits of 473 million ILS (roughly 130 million dollars), up 3%, compared with ILS 459 million in 2015. New orders in 2016 totaled ILS 10.7 billion, and sales amounted to ILS 8.32 billion, 6% more than in 2015. The company's orders backlog as of the end of 2016 was ILS 21.72 billion, 12% more than at the end of 2015.

On October 14, 2007, the company changed its name from Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

• Python – an air-to-air missiles system.
• Spike – a fourth generation fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile
• Popeye – an air-to-ground missile system.
  • Popeye Turbo SLCM – believed to be a nuclear-tipped submarine-launched cruise missile
• Iron Beam – laser missile defense system
• Iron Dome – an air defense system to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells
• TROPHY– an active protection system for armored vehicles.
• Protector USV – an unmanned surface vehicle (unmanned, autonomous naval combat system)
• David's Sling – surface-to-air missile system.

In 1993, Rafael Development Corporation (RDC), a technology transfer company, was established as a joint venture with Elron Electronic Industries; in order to commercialize applications based on defense technologies for medical devices, telecommunications, and semiconductor industries. The company established and developed several companies including:

• Given Imaging – focusing on capsule endoscopy technologies.
• Oramir Semiconductor Equipment – a developer of laser cleaning technologies for the semiconductor industry, sold to Applied Materials in 2001 for $21 million.
• Starling Advanced Communications (TASE:STLG) – a provider of broadband wireless networking solutions for airliners.
• Galil Medical – a developer of cryotherapy solutions.
• SELA Semiconductor Engineering Laboratories – a provider of automated sample preparation tools for semiconductor manufacturers, sold to Camtek Intelligent Imaging.
• 3DV Systems – developers of the ZCam, a time-of-flight camera products for video applications, sold to Microsoft.
• Medingo – developer of a micro pump insulin delivery system consists of two parts: a semi-disposable insulin dispensing patch and a remote control, which allows for discreet personalized insulin delivery. The company was sold to Hoffmann-La Roche's subsidiary Roche Diagnostics for $160 million as well as up to $40 million in milestone payments.

• Air Defense systems
  • Iron Dome
    • Tamir, missile used by Iron Dome
    • C-Dome (the naval version of Iron Dome)
  • MIC4AD
  • SPYDER
  • David's Sling
  • Drone Dome
  • Iron Beam
  • SkySonic
• Air to Air missiles
  • Python-5
  • I-Derby
  • I-Derby ER
  • Sky Spear (missile)
• Air to Surface missile
  • Spice (bomb) Family
  • SPARROW family
  • Rocks Family, unveiled in February 2019.
• Electronic Warfare Systems
  • SKY SHIELD Escort Jamming pod
  • C-GEM Active Offboard Decoy
• Precision Guided missiles
  • SPIKE ER
  • SPIKE LR
  • SPIKE NLOS
  • Sea Breaker
• Missile upgrade kits
  • Electro-optical Precision Integration Kit (EPIK)
• Active Protection System
  • TROPHY an active armor protection system, "Windbreaker" (Hebrew: מעיל רוח)
• Remote-controlled weapon station
  • Rafael OWS (nicknamed "MAG Rafael" by the IDF)
  • Samson RCWS (Hebrew name: קטלנית)
  • Typhoon Weapon Station for naval applications and military ships
• Demining Systems
  • Rafael Carpet

• The bomb in the basement, Michael Karpin, Ed Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-0-7432-6595-9

• Rafael official website
• Rafael Development Corporation
• Rafael at EurpStory 2004
• Rafael at the LIC-2005 conference
• Rafael UK

32°52′06″N 35°05′35″E / 32.8684°N 35.0931°E / 32.8684; 35.0931