Israeli firm Rafael, General Atomics ink deal to produce ‘Bullseye’ missile stateside

A Bullseye missile being manufactured by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems. (Image courtesy of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems)

SEA AIR SPACE 2025 — General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems said today it signed a memorandum of understanding with Israeli defense contractor Rafael to manufacture a new long-range, precision-guided strike missile in the United States.

The missile, dubbed Bullseye, will be capable of launching from air, ground or sea and will leverage the design used for Rafael’s Ice Breaker missile.

“We are excited to work with Rafael to introduce Bullseye, a highly effective deep-strike missile. Bullseye will be built in the U.S. for delivery to U.S. military customers to support a variety of critical Department of Defense and coalition partners’ precision-fires missions,“ said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “By leveraging Rafael’s extensive investment in the design, maturation and testing of a unique, modular missile, we can reduce risk and development costs and provide production-scale delivery of a highly capable, high-performance precision-guided missile at significant per-unit cost-savings.”

Bullseye, which is not currently being purchased by the Pentagon, is at technology readiness level (TRL) 8. TRL is a system the Defense Department uses to rate how immature or advanced a technology is, with one indicating the tech is largely theoretical while a 10 means it is fully operational and has been proven in real-world scenarios.

A General Atomics spokesperson told Breaking Defense the company is “actively engaged with potential U.S. customers across multiple services” about how the missile may match their needs. The spokesperson also said Rafael has approximately 1,200 missiles on order from undisclosed customers, and deliveries are expected to begin by the end of this year.

“By combining Rafael’s Combat-proven innovative 5th Generation missile technologies with GA-EMS’s advanced manufacturing, assembly, integration and test expertise, Bullseye will deliver unprecedented accuracy, flexibility and affordability, giving warfighters a state-of-the-art missile system that hits its mark and adapts to evolving mission needs,” said Yuval Miller, executive vice president and head of Rafael’s Air & C4ISR Systems Division.