Protecting the Innovations That Protect Us

One of the consequences of the "Iron Swords" war is an increase in demand for products and systems manufactured by the defense industries. The operational success of weapon, electro-optical, and missile defense systems, which have proven themselves on the battlefield and the home front, has provided an additional "stamp of quality" for the products of the Israeli defense industry for customers and buyers worldwide. Even before the war, demand for blue-and-white military systems surged due to the war in Ukraine and geopolitical uncertainty, and 2023 will probably end as a record year for sales by defense industry companies.

"Wars naturally create a serious push to develop new defense technologies according to the needs that emerge on the battlefield or to upgrade existing systems based on the lessons learned from military operations," says Dr. Esther Luzzatto, CEO of The Luzzatto Group, Israel's oldest intellectual property group. The Luzzatto Group has been helping defense industry companies protect their sensitive intellectual property assets, optimally describing the technology and creating a maximum protection environment. "War defines existential needs, and I do not doubt that defense R&D will enjoy increased acceleration after the war because, as we know, the best inventions resulted from necessity."

"Even before the war and the crisis in the high-tech industry, there was an increase in demand for high-tech workers in the defense industries. After the war, we may witness an interesting confluence of need, available human capital, and financing, which will move the defense industry further forward."

Dr. Luzzatto broadly uses the term "defense industry" and includes not only heavy industry but also companies that manufacture security equipment, tools for the civil defense system, and medical device companies that have extensive military and security interfaces. According to her, it is not only the Arrow 3 and Barak missiles but also electro-optical systems for identifying objects, drones, pick-up trucks, systems for analyzing and processing information using unmanned aerial vehicles, and more.

"The defense industry is the glory of Israel's creativity, which was born out of necessity and has become one of the leading, advanced, and outstanding ones in the world," concludes Dr. Luzzatto, presenting three of The Luzzatto Group clients (see frames). "This is an industry in which the best minds of Israeli society work, and by the nature of our occupation, we get to see it firsthand. It saved us many losses on the battlefield, greatly increased exports and the flow of valuable foreign currency into Israel, and at the same time, brought military developments into the domestic sphere. I'm convinced that the knowledge, experience, and creativity of engineers and developers in the industry will ensure technological innovation in developing the next generation of products, meeting the needs that will arise from learning the lessons of the war."

In collaboration with The Luzzatto Group

Computer on every weapon
Anyone who follows the activity of our fighters in Gaza can see that they are equipped with advanced technological means. One of the companies responsible for the revolution in increasing shooting accuracy is Smartshooter, which develops and manufactures smart sights for rifles and fire control systems. The sights increase shooting accuracy and significantly improve hit rates for various types of stationary and mobile targets. The company's products are called "SMASH," short for Smart Shooter, and in the IDF, "Dagger."

"That the advanced fire and shooting control systems we are developing transform the conventional soldier, armed with 'iron' in hand, into an operator wielding a smart digital weapon system that meets the requirements of the contemporary and future battlefield.," says Michal Mor, CEO and founder of the company. "The soldier operates under difficult conditions and pressure, and it's difficult to accurately calculate everything needed to hit the target under these conditions. In our systems, everything is done automatically: the soldier only chooses his target and frames it, and the system takes care of locking and tracking it, making all ballistics calculations, and releasing the projectile the moment an impact is guaranteed. It is suitable both against stationary and moving ground targets, as well as against drones."

"Today, the battlefield is an integrated space in which the soldier deals with several ranges, not only the ground range and not only in front of the windows of Hamas houses, but also in the air, for example, in dealing with armed drones and balloons, and of course, underground," notes Avshalom Erlich, the company's CTO and founder. "In the current era of missiles and precision, our guiding idea is to give the soldier an advantage in all these arenas, improve his chances of hitting in all firing and readiness situations, and against all types of targets, on the ground and in the air."

"We're basically talking about a computer for every weapon, including the possibility of software upgrades," Mor adds. "The ability to deal with drones, for example, is a programmatic capability."

How do you promote innovation in the company?
Avshalom Erlich: "We raise a lot of ideas; some are insane, and some fail down the road. But when we hit on 'the next thing,' we see it quite clearly. Ostensibly, what wins out in the end is when an operational need meets appropriate technology, but we often try to move ahead and come up with a capability even before clarifying the need for it, then make it available."

Since you emphasize innovation, have you developed an IP strategy to protect it?
Michal Mor: "We are careful to protect our assets. The policy is to patent whatever is appropriate in our marketing targets in as many countries as possible. Thanks to funding from the Innovation Authority, we registered a patent even before the company was founded. Since then, we have expanded our capabilities and developed a broad patent strategy, but because a plethora of ideas go live, we are forced to register only those developments that have a predicted advantage in the market and have reached maturity."

Avshalom Erlich: "We use the experience and knowledge of The Luzzatto Group and use their help to prioritize the patentable developments. They are professionals, so we listen to their recommendations."

What is the vision?
Michal Mor: "Today, there is no question that infantry is a vital link to victory on the battlefield. Our vision is to continue to equip the combatants in the field with all the relevant technological means, combining hardware and software with connectivity and other sensors in the arena as part of a complete combat array. We have developed a family of products, including remotely controlled stations and those designed for integration on mounted platforms and robots, all tailored to the needs of infantry."

The company that promotes the drone revolution
Drones have many uses, whether civilian, for example, for smart deliveries, or military. More and more aviation authorities worldwide are now granting permits to operate delivery drones on experimental routes as part of pilot programs involving food delivery applications and others. The company that makes this possible Today is the Israeli company ParaZero Technologies, which equips drone companies with a safety system that includes a parachute and a control system to ensure the safe landing of the drone on the ground in cases of loss of control, malfunction, or collision.

"Drones are not yet as safe as passenger planes that are regulated according to strict specifications and highly reliable. Drones do not meet aviation standards, and the frequency of their malfunctions is high," explains Boaz Shatzer, the company CEO. "Unlike military drones, the civilian drone revolution is not so developed yet due to regulation, and we are, to a large extent, ahead of our time. But many pilot projects are being conducted, and these are made possible, among others, thanks to our system, which causes minimal height loss in case of a fall. After all, we live in a world of risk management, and we are enabling aviation authorities to reduce the level of risk to a level they can live with along the way to skies full of civilian drones in the future."

Shatzer is an electronics engineer by training and has accumulated over 20 years of operational flying on Hercules aircraft. He is currently a reserve flight instructor for the Air Force Flight School. After retiring from the software company Soluto following its exit, he was recruited by ParaZero, first as a product person, then as operations manager, and eventually was appointed CEO. Shatzer is a wonderful example of the experience that Israeli entrepreneurs gain in the military and civilian worlds, which Israeli high-tech enjoys.

"The big break came for the company when our customers received over 120 exceptional flight permits from the FAA to fly over populated areas for the popular Phantom and Mavic drones that used our systems. This was a historic breakthrough in the US and around the world. The integration of an appropriate safety system will allow drones to fly over populated areas and move over urban environments, as they are already part of the 'flying taxis' revolution."

To what degree does innovation play a role at ParaZero?
"The innovation motivation is very strong here. In fact, we are inventing the wheel in the field and we have great creative and marketing potential. The market is looking for efficiency, and we are here to deliver it. The future belongs to hovercraft: drones and flying taxis."

"We work hand-in-hand with The Luzzatto Group to protect the systems we develop and use The Group's patent experts extensively to answer the question of what is patentable, what is not, and what will be considered innovative. The goal is to specify the technology optimally and create a maximum protection environment."

SAN Ltd - Combat, Search, and Rescue
While still a fighter and commander in the breaching squad of the Duvdevan unit (a team that made headlines only recently), Ran Nakash, CEO of SAN Ltd, managed to raise funds to develop innovative equipment for his unit. "The equipment we had at the time was not suitable for a tactical breaching, and after some persuasion, the army agreed to fund new military tools that we developed in our unit," he recalls. "Over time, these tools spread their wings and reached more army and police units in Israel. Today, we are also operationally active in over 40 countries worldwide."

After his discharge and the customary trip to South America, he continued to develop advanced breaching tools, applying new ideas in the field. After the Second Lebanon War, the army published a tender for the tools that Nakash and his unit had developed. Nakash received an offer from SAN Hi-Tech, the company in which his father was a partner, to set up a breaching division and take part in the tender based on his experience and knowledge accumulated during his service.

"What started as ideas born in the field has become a division that is active in 67 countries and sells in 42 of them," says Nakash, who heads the company's northern division, which now employs 25 people, most of them engineers and technicians.

"We develop and manufacture advanced and diverse equipment in the breaching, search, and rescue fields intended for special forces, police units, such as detectives and special patrol units, local alert squads, and the Home Front Command. Abroad, we also provide equipment to firefighting units. This includes sophisticated devices for breaking down doors, windows, and breaking into vehicles, both for tactical operations and for life-saving missions, such as working in areas of destruction."

"Unlike the heavy breaching tools of the past, our tactical breaching systems incorporate innovative technologies based on lightweight materials, which allow easy carrying and operation by one person and provide a powerful set of tools that can break into any structure at maximum speed. Today, we are the largest supplier in this field for the IDF, police, and firefighters, and our tools are also used by special forces around the world. Our factories operate according to the highest global standards, with expertise in metals, hydraulics, mechanics, auxiliary power units (APUs), and we deploy integrated systems."

What is the role of the company during the war?
"We have been working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, to satisfy the demands of the security establishment and the police from day one. Don't forget that army and police units working in the region surrounding the Gaza Strip had to search many homes, rescue people trapped in vehicles, live people, and, unfortunately, bodies as well, neutralize threats, and carry out operations to capture wanted terrorists. All this took place every day using our breaching equipment.

Amidst all of this, we had to relocate the factory from Kiryat Shmona to Acre to maintain the continuity of the production lines and technical support for the existing systems, which was an operation in itself, all under mortar fire and clashes at the outposts surrounding Kiryat Shmona. A true Israeli story."

How do you protect the innovations you develop?
"We integrate technological innovation in all our development processes. Over time, we learned to identify innovation and understood the need to protect it because, in the end, there is competition abroad, and our tools were often copied, and others drew inspiration from the products we developed. We realized that primacy has value, that there is a huge need for long-term IP protection, and that we must protect ourselves with patents. In short, we have developed a high awareness in the field."

"We rely heavily on The Luzzatto Group for these needs. They have an office in Kiryat Shmona, and I am connected to their agenda, which includes the country's periphery. I fell in love with the warmth, the management methods, and the good people, and I really appreciate their professionalism. Their willingness to help and their ideology captured my heart."