The production of the ‘Popeye’ air-to-ground missile is being gradually transferred from the Israeli factory of Rafael (Israel Armaments Development Authority) to a factory in the US that is jointly owned by Rafael and Lockheed Martin. At the end of the process, all ‘Popeyes will be produced in the US.
According to an item in today’s (Monday) issue of the weekly "Defense News", the Israeli/US company, United States Precision Guided Systems, of Orlando, Florida, will manufacture the missiles and assemble them in the town of Troy, Alabama. As was recently announced, the Israeli Airforce will buy 45 Popeye missiles from the US factory, and not from the factory of Rafael in Israel.
More than 50% of Popeye missile production will take place in the US by the end of the summer, said the director of the US Airforce Missile program to the journal. In the next two years, he said the Israeli/US company expects to get orders for at least 200 missiles.
Rafael USA Inc. general manager and chairman Eli Yitzhaki, in an interview with "Defense News", confirmed that transfer of Popeye production to the US would, in the short run, adversely affect some Israeli workers, but the expansion of international sales as a consequence of increasingly efficient production, and lower production costs, will eventually yield profits for Rafael.
Published by Israel's Business Arena January 12, 1998