IDF looks to the future with multi-billion dollar acquisition of new missile ships and modern tactical vehicles

With the Israel Defense Forces being challenged like few times in its history, the Defense Ministry announced Sunday that the military will be modernized with the procurement of new missile ships and tactical vehicles.

Following recommendations of a special committee, which evaluated the security budget and force building, the Ministerial Procurement Committee, approved several acquisitions of five new Reshef-class navy corvettes, as well as hundreds of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs).

The advanced Reshef-type missile ships will be built locally by Israel Shipyards to replace the navy’s aging Nirit-class corvettes, which will be retired after four decades of service.

A defense procurement committee made up of senior ministers approved billions of shekels worth of new purchases for the Israeli military today, the Prime Minister's Office, Defense Ministry and treasury say in a joint statement.

The procurements include the Reshef-class… pic.twitter.com/bG2WPJaCm4

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“Production of the ships in Israel will provide jobs to hundreds of workers in the north,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in the statement announcing the procurement decision.

“After October 7 and the outbreak of the Swords of Iron war, and as part of the conceptual change, the Nagel Committee was established to evaluate the future acquisitions and force building of the security establishment. The decisions that were made today are part of the in-depth evaluation process being held by the Government of Israel regarding the acquisition processes,” the PMO added.

The new generation of Reshef-class ships and design "will be a heavily-armed 1,000-ton displacement patrol corvette equipped for combat operations as well as maritime security in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone and protection of critical infrastructure in territorial waters,” according to the website Naval News.

“The ambition to have [the first-of-class] integrated and operational in early 2027. We are going to build the sections of the ship in the United States, combine them together, then integrate the combat system back in Israel. Israel Shipyards will be our main contractor, with the US shipyard as their subcontractor,” Commander Yonatan Kudish, Head of Platform Development Branch in the Israeli Navy, said at a conference in May 2023.

The platform will include Rafael’s C-Dome point defense missile system, a naval variant of the Iron Dome, and will be built to enable the retrofit of the laser weapon system that Israel is currently developing.

The committee also approved the acquisition of hundreds of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, which are armored all-terrain vehicles used by the ground forces, which will be supplied to the IDF in the coming years.

According to the website Israel Defense, 75 JLTVs were part of a U.S. aid package in November. The vehicles were produced by American Oshkosh Defense, with the armor being made by Israeli company Plasan and its U.S. subsidiary, Plasan North America. According to the report, one JLTV was sold for the price of $400,000.

Oshkosh at the time said that dozens more JLTVs were purchased by Israel via Direct Commercial Sale (DCS).