BRUSSELS — The EU is looking to Israel to support its new push for high-tech air defense and space capabilities.
Israel Space Agency boss Shimrit Maman this week traveled to Brussels where she met Tuesday with Ekaterina Zaharieva, European commissioner for startups, research and innovation for talks on key areas like AI and robotics.
The visit comes before Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gives her first major speech on space at a summit in Paris on Thursday, where she is expected to warn of growing hostilities and the need for Europe to step up its presence in space.
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"It's very hard to do things on your own," Maman told POLITICO, warning that the militarization of space "is already happening — we just don't realize how much" and that Israel is seeing more interest from allies in "dual-use" technology for both civilian and defense purposes.
"One of the things we are working on is early warning systems," she said. "We saw that very nicely in the last round [of missile strikes] we had with Iran, for example. How we are managing to get [warnings to] all the civilians in Israel and not have that many casualties. That's part of that system. We are working on that very wide look that you're able to warn in advance, have that system warn the citizens."
A string of recent deals have seen the EU pursue closer military and technological relations with Israel, after several years of effective disengagement as a result of political tensions that have followed the war in Gaza. However, competition from Washington and strategic rivalries with Moscow and Beijing have created a need for allies with advanced industrial capabilities.
In 2024, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen backed calls from Polish and Greek Prime Ministers Donald Tusk and Kyriakos Mitsotakis to create an EU-funded air defense shield.
However, three senior officials involved in the discussions told POLITICO the plans did not move ahead after the Commission and a handful of capitals concluded it would need to rely on Israeli air-defense technology, which they deemed too sensitive a year into the Gaza conflict.
Now though, in a major expansion of its operations in Europe, Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems confirmed Monday that it will open a factory producing its Iron Dome air-defense system in a former Volkswagen factory in Germany. One week ago, Greece struck a €3 billion deal with Israel’s Defense Ministry to build a new multilayered air defense network designed to take down drones, hostile jets and rockets.
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"We see that convergence of everything, of that multi-layer defense approach," said Maman, pointing to satellite imaging and AI modeling as a key focus for joint development.
"I don't treat only defense as ballistic missiles from Iran ... think about a fire or a flash flood or even a prolonged drought ... we have a proven track record and we do have very good results," she said.
Antoaneta Roussi, Jordyn Dahl, Chris Lunday and Romanus Otte contributed to this report.