The push for explosive self-sufficiency accelerated significantly after May 2024, when the Biden administration imposed a partial weapons freeze on Israel.
By Hezy Laing
In a decisive strategic pivot toward complete military autonomy, Israel is actively establishing domestic mass-production capabilities for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) style guidance kits to be operational within the next two years.
This shift follows decades of heavy reliance on the United States, which historically supplied 69% of Israel’s major conventional arms imports.
The push for explosive self-sufficiency accelerated significantly after May 2024, when the Biden administration imposed a partial weapons freeze on Mk-82 and 2,000-pound Mk-84 general-purpose bombs over the IDF invasion of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
While the initial mandate focused purely on manufacturing basic unguided “dumb” bombs, Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram expanded the initiative throughout 2025 and 2026 to target full “munitions independence”.
This policy includes the localized mass-production of sophisticated JDAM kits, which utilize an integrated inertial navigation system (INS) and global positioning system (GPS) receiver to transform unguided bombs into all-weather precision-guided munitions with an operational range of up to 15 nautical miles.
To realize this ambitious goal, the Israeli Ministry of Defense executed a series of massive multi-year procurement contracts with Elbit Systems, led by Chief Executive Officer Bezhalel Machlis.
These landmark arrangements include a NIS 1.5 billion ($484 million) agreement signed in October 2024 to construct a brand-new heavy munitions manufacturing factory, alongside an additional NIS 1 billion contract finalized on January 7, 2025, to establish a domestic raw materials plant.
To bypass intense defense budget deadlocks with the Finance Ministry, the Defense Ministry capitalized on multi-billion-dollar Arrow 3 air defense system export deals to Germany, utilizing the massive influx of foreign capital to heavily subsidize local factory expansions.
Collaborating with other state defense giants like Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, Israel’s ramped-up blue-and-white production lines are systematically designed to secure long-term battlefield endurance.
