Tel Aviv: Israel Ministry of Defence (IMOD) Director General, Maj Gen (Res.) Amir Baram held a brainstorming session with the CEOs of roughly 20 leading defence-tech and startup companies, focused on the Ministry’s strategy to advance Israel’s munitions independence, strengthen its qualitative and technological-defence edge, and deepen cooperation with the defence establishment.
The meeting was attended by the Head of the Directorate of Defence Research and Development (DDR&D), Brig Gen (Res.) Dr Daniel Gold, the Head of the Budget Department and Economic Advisor to the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Brig Gen Nir Weingold; the Deputy Director General and Head of the Planning Department, Racheli Chen; the Deputy Director General and Head of the Defence Procurement Directorate (DPD), Ze’ev Landau; and additional senior officials. Companies represented at the forum included Xtend, SmartShooter, Kela, Ondas, Esh-Tech, and others.
The Director-General and senior ministry officials presented the CEOs with the IMOD’s strategy, centered on: strengthening Israel’s munitions independence; preserving and expanding its qualitative edge through the development of “the next surprises”; increasing defenc exports; and broadening the strategic partnership with the United States and other countries. The meeting enabled the companies to raise the key challenges facing defence startups, allowed the Ministry to deepen its support for them, and advanced Israel’s unique defence-tech ecosystem, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading.
According to figures presented by the Head of the DDR&D, orders to defence startups in the first half of 2026 totaled approximately $330 million (approximately NIS 1 billion) – double the amount in the same period last year. The number of defence-tech companies operating under the Ministry’s oversight since the start of the war has risen to 322, driven by growing demand at home and abroad and by a series of measures taken by the Ministry, led by the DDR&D together with the Budget Department and other departments, to strengthen the defence-tech and defence-startup ecosystem in Israel.
IMOD Director-General, Maj Gen (Res.) Amir Baram, said, “One of our strategic goals is munitions independence in critical components – we cannot allow our operational capability to depend on a supply chain we do not control. This is a process that takes time, but it begins with the decisions we make every day, and you, the startups, are part of that solution. We are not choosing between startups and the major manufacturers – we need both: we want healthy competition that drives innovation and competitive pricing, and we want partnerships that allow small, agile capabilities to integrate into large, proven systems. This is a balance we expect every player in the industry to respect, in accordance with our code of ethics.”
He added, “We will encourage and assist, to the best of our ability, in strengthening every component of the ecosystem: entrepreneurs, venture capital investors, government funding, long-term contracts that provide certainty, and exports that open additional markets. Together, these form the engine that can drive the national growth of Israel’s defence-tech industry – not only as a defence solution, but as a genuine economic driver. Defence-tech is part of the State of Israel’s unique advantage, built on combat-proven capabilities that Israeli talent has successfully demonstrated on the battlefield time and again.”
