Rafael saw record sales in 2024, with almost half from outside Israel

A Spike NLOS weapon is launched. (Rafael)

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems saw a 27 percent growth in sales in 2024 compared to the year before, according to company figures released this week.

Sales were $4.8 billion in 2024, with around half of that to international customers, the company said in a statement distributed to media. The company also has an order backlog of $17.76 billion.

“We saw a significant spike in international interest in our systems in the last year,” Yoav Tourgeman, the CEO and president of Rafael, said in a statement to Breaking Defense. “Given the extensive operational experience in our systems, we saw some of these major systems receive even more attention globally.”

Rafael said that the fourth quarter of 2024 was the company’s “strongest quarter of the year and its highest-grossing quarter to date, with quarterly sales totaling $1.48 billion —compared to $1.2 billion in Q4 2023. Orders received in the quarter totaled approximately $3 billion.

Rafael makes several successful widely used Israeli defense systems, including the Iron Dome air defense system and the Trophy Active Protection System for tanks and armored vehicles. Both systems have now been operational with the IDF for a decade, while receiving a series of upgrades for emerging threats. Iron Dome, for instance, was recently tested against multiple types of threats, including mock attacks by numerous drones and rockets.

“We have succeeded in foreseeing the challenges of tomorrow, and developing the means to deal with them. This is what we see with systems like Iron Dome, the Trophy APS, as well as the David’s Sling, amongst others. There is a demand for combat proven capabilities that have shown time and time again how critical they are, and how effective,” Tourgeman said.

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Rafael’s success fits into a pattern of major successes for Israel’s defense industry over the last year. Israel Aerospace Industries said in a recent statement that it has an order backlog of $25 billion and sales of $6.1 billion in 2024, also its highest grossing year in history. Elbit Systems reported revenues of $6.8 billion in 2024 and a backlog of $22.6 billion.

Israeli defense companies have been focused on supplying the IDF during the last seventeen months of war, which began with the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Many companies saw thousands of their employees called up for reserve duty and expanded shifts in order to meet the needs of the war effort, and their international customers.

To that end, Rafael said it has recruited 1,800 new employees as demand has surged for Rafael’s systems.
“We also increased research and development investment and expanded our development footprint by opening a new branch in Hadera, alongside our existing R&D centers in northern Israel, Be’er Sheva, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv,” Tourgeman said.

The company also pointed to an agreement in October 2024 with the Israeli Ministry of Defense for Rafael’s Iron Beam laser defense system, expected to be delivered in 2025. In addition the company’s statement pointed to its joint venture with Raytheon in the US where it has a new facility in Arkansas for producing the Tamir interceptors for Iron Dome.