20.02.2021, ARABIAN AEROSPACE
Despite a travel ban affecting all commercial traffic from Israel, one of the country’s top defence experts made history when he appeared at the International Defence Conference (IDC) held in Abu Dhabi on the eve of the biennial IDEX show.
More than 200 delegates and exhibitors had registered for the region’s largest military showcase with an Israeli pavilion, the direct response to Abraham Accord, a diplomatic agreement to strengthen and ‘normalise’ relationships between Israel and the UAE.
However with travel restrictions introduced late last week airlines were banned from leaving Israel and despite appeals to the country’s health ministry, Israel’s contingent had to remain at home.
But Dr. Uzi Rubin from the Jerusalem Institute of Strategy and Security joined the conference online. Dr. Rubin was the first director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) in the Israel Ministry of Defense (MoD), where he helped develop, produce and deploy its first national missile defense shield, the Arrow missile defense system. He led the Arrow program from its inception in 1991 to the first delivery of operational missiles in 1999.
Dr. Rubin joined panelists including Faisal Al Bannai the CEO of EDGE, and Tareq Abdulraheem Al Hosani, CEO of Tawazun Economic Council, to discuss the strengthening of the industry’s R&D in an increasingly complex dynamic context.
