The Director General at The Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD), Maj. Gen. (Res.) Eyal Zamir opened the first International Defense-Tech Summit this morning (Tuesday), led by the IMOD’s Directorate of Defense, Research & Development (DDR&D), in collaboration with the Blavatnik Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University. The summit brings together senior officials from the DDR&D, IDF, defense industries, academia, entrepreneurship, startups, and venture capital funds.
Director General Zamir dedicated a central part of his lecture to the artificial intelligence and autonomy revolution and his decision, being implemented these days, to establish a dedicated organization at the DDR&D for AI and Autonomy:
"AI isn't just another innovation – it is a complete game-changer. It is a revolution that brings new knowledge to every aspect of life, including defense capabilities. Whoever adapts first gets a massive advantage. If you are not all in technology, you will fall behind. This may sound visionary, but the future battlefield will allow swarms of mixed combat units – men and unmanned systems fighting together or fully autonomous units operating as one, capable of making their own decisions. In the next ten to fifteen years, maybe sooner, AI robots in land, air, and sea will dominate a fully networked battlefield. But make no mistake: In the near future, we will continue to empower our forces. But we must embed these new abilities to be more efficient and save lives.”
Maj. Gen. (Res.) Zamir also addressed the security developments in the region:
"This created a massive domino effect across the Middle East. We all watched as Syria collapsed within days. The entire Iranian axis was severely damaged as a direct result of Israel's military operations. When Israeli pilots used American aircraft equipped with Israeli technology to hit Iran's most advanced defense systems – it sent a powerful message to the world."
Referring to the manufacturing independence program led by the Israel Ministry of Defense, he said:
"When war broke out, my mission was clear: Keep the IDF fully operational with no weapon limits in an ongoing, multi-front campaign."