Israel revealed on Wednesday that its military exports in 2022 reached an all-time high, worth $ 12.5 billion, while a quarter of sales went to Arab countries with which normalization agreements have been signed in recent years with US mediation.
The Israeli Defense Ministry, which oversees the exports of the "defense industry", said that one in four deals related to drone systems, while "missiles and air defense systems" accounted for 4% of all exports.
According to ministry data, exports have doubled over the past nine years. Data on export zones showed a qualitative jump in exports to Arab countries that signed normalization agreements with Israel.
In terms of numbers, export revenues amounted to $ 853 million to these countries in 2021, compared to $ 2.96 billion in 2022, increasing from 9 to 24% of the total of these exports.
Israel's Defense Ministry did not provide further details.
"Global instability increases demand for Israeli air defense systems, drones and missiles, and we are constantly working to maintain and enhance our capabilities," ministry director-general Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
Deal with Germany
In the same context, the German parliament on Wednesday approved the purchase of the advanced Arrow-3 air defense system (Hetz-3) from Israel for 4 billion euros ($ 4.3 billion).
Parliament's budget committee has given the green light to release a down payment of 560 million euros (about $606 million), a committee source said.
On Wednesday, Israel's Rafael Defense Systems announced it had developed hypersonic missile interceptor systems and planned to unveil them at the Paris Air Show next week.
The deal with Germany comes as European countries move to boost their defence capabilities in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine.