Haifa / Tel Aviv: Israeli company Elbit Systems announced December 16 that it was notified that the Hellenic Parliament and KYSEA (Government Council for National Security) have approved a budget for the purchase of the company’s PULS rocket artillery system for the Hellenic Armed Forces. Considering the above, Elbit Systems anticipates receiving a contract in an amount that is material to the company.
The anticipated contract award is contingent, among others, on completion of commercial negotiations with the Hellenic Ministry of National Defence.
Elbit Systems’ PULS provides a comprehensive and cost-effective solution capable of launching unguided rockets, precision-guided munitions, and missiles with various ranges. The PULS launcher is fully adaptable to existing wheeled and tracked platforms, enabling significant reductions in maintenance and training costs.
US policy may forbid the use of American-made rockets in Israeli launchers like the Elbit PULS. When third countries are engaged, Israeli-designed systems are obviously impacted by US policy and technical/interface constraints that restrict firing specific US rockets from non-US launchers in general.
Israeli defense sources claim that the problem is more about how closely the United States and Lockheed Martin control GMLRS/MLRS integration and paperwork across all international systems than it is about Israel specifically.
The compulsory use of GMLRS rockets by US launch platforms (M270/HIMARS) has been tightened by Lockheed Martin and the US government through interface documentation and technical standards that are not made available for integration into other launchers without specific US permission.
According to a report on Germany’s Euro-PULS acquisition, GMLRS purchased from the United States may not be able to legally or technically launch from the Israeli PULS-based system without Washington’s approval due to revised US interface regulations.
In reality, this has resulted in situations where European clients are unable to incorporate US GMLRS stocks into Israeli-designed launchers (such as Euro-PULS), even though they are theoretically and physically compatible, because the United States withholds the required interface data and authorisation.
By keeping American rockets strongly linked to American launchers, the US signals its intention to reduce third party integration with Israel and other non-American systems.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
