IAI’s Boaz Levy Takes Israel’s Missile Shield to Market
Felice Friedson met Boaz Levy in a calm room for an uncalm subject: missiles, war, and the business of stopping both. The Israel Aerospace Industries CEO is soft-spoken, but his message is blunt—air defense is no longer a niche capability. It’s a shopping list.
Levy describes IAI as a “multi-domain” operation spanning space, air, sea, land, and the connective tissue in between. It is also, for now, a fully state-owned company preparing for a minority initial public offering. Levy frames the IPO less as a balance-sheet maneuver than a government decision: Israel will keep control, but up to 49% of shares could be opened to the public, under supervision and on a timetable that won’t be rushed.
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The interview turns to Europe’s anxiety. With fear of war back on the continent, Levy says demand for layered air and missile defense is accelerating—and IAI intends to deliver, even when Israel itself is under fire. His proof point is Germany: an Arrow deal signed just before October 7, then executed during wartime without slipping the schedule, culminating recently in an initial operational capability declaration in Berlin.
Levy is equally clear about the rules. Defense exports are controlled by Israel’s Ministry of Defense; IAI can market globally, but politics decides which doors open. On technology, he rejects absolutes: no system is 100%, so survivability comes from layers, data, and autonomous tools that reduce risk to soldiers while keeping humans as final decision-makers.
He points to Operation Rising Lion and massive ballistic salvos as the public’s wake-up call: even “more than 90%” interception leaves damage. Read the full piece by Felice Friedson for detail, the deal math, and Levy’s view of warfare by 2050.
