Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumWhere are the bombs and missiles
made that are flying through the air in Israel and Gaza?
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)For more on the rockets now used by Hamas and Hezbollah, Robert Siegel speaks with Ted Postol, a professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Postol also comments on Israel's pursuit of an upgraded defense system.
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/09/330183774/the-rockets-from-hamas-and-the-iron-dome-that-could-use-patching
roody
(10,849 posts)I suspect that many of Israel's arms are made in the USA.
Igel
(35,296 posts)Their military products are purchased by other countries. It's a third or so of their export earnings. Iron Dome is sort of co-produced with the US. They make their own Merkaba tanks. They make a variety of missiles. Some that they use are probably US-produced--it's hard to have a great variety of production when you're a small country--but it's an open question as to how much guilt for what's happening in Gaza we can lay at our own feet.
When it comes to planes and to ships they rely on the US.
Hamas has its own rocket production capacity. It's one of the reasons that a lot of stuff like metal tubing--things that we look at and say, "That's needed for sewage treatment plants"--doesn't get imported to Gaza. As with the big concrete slabs that were to be used for housing (but which wound up lining hundreds of meters of smuggling tunnels) not everything imported for a given purpose is used for that purpose. Some things go to smuggling. Some things go to provide military capability. Instead of helping the people that really need it.
Iran's the biggest benefactor after that. And whoever they get their stuff from. Iran tries to be self-sufficient but imports stuff from China and/or Russia, often copying or mimicking technology.