Excerpt from Jerusalem Post:

https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-906421

“Defense Minister Israel Katz said space capabilities would provide the IDF with an advantage in future conflicts as Israel seeks to become a leading space power.

Israel is set to develop offensive space capabilities as part of the Defense Ministry’s multiyear budget plan for the space sector, including systems designed to defend Israeli satellites from hostile spacecraft and weapons capable of striking targets on Earth from space.

The plan includes upgrades to existing capabilities, including expanded intelligence collection from space and improved communications systems. A dedicated budget will be allocated for offensive space activity as part of a broader effort to strengthen Israel’s position in the space domain.

The Defense Ministry’s multiyear plan focuses on several areas.

The first is the expansion of IDF intelligence collection capabilities from space through multiple layers, allowing operations around the clock, in all weather conditions and across multiple locations simultaneously.

The second area involves establishing broad, resilient, and continuous communications capabilities for the defense establishment.

In addition, a dedicated budget will support offensive space operations focused on two main areas: weapons designed to protect Israeli satellites from hostile satellites, and weapons capable of striking targets on Earth from space, both to defend the Israeli home front and to strike hostile actors.

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He explained that the two satellites are SAR satellites, meaning radar satellites, whose technology differs from standard electro-optical imaging satellites. Traditional imaging satellites rely on sunlight reflecting off the ground, returning to the satellite’s optics and creating an image.

“With a SAR satellite, the satellite itself creates the image: it transmits electromagnetic radiation toward the ground, and through special technology, everything that returns from the ground from that energy creates a synthetic image that allows us to produce intelligence,” Berger said.

Berger explained that “this allows us to photograph both day and night, penetrate clouds, and create additional high-resolution imaging capabilities in other contexts that cannot be discussed.”