Michael Coulter. Photo: Facebook.

Israel is the “Silicon Valley” of the defense industry, an executive at DRS Technologies said this week.

Michael Coulter, president of international strategy and business development at the US-based subsidiary of the Italian company Finmeccanica SpA — a main supplier of integrated products, services and support to military forces, intelligence agencies and prime contractors across the world — made this statement in an exclusive interview with the online publication Israel Defense on Tuesday, which was posted on the Hebrew news site nrg.

Discussing cooperative projects with companies in the Jewish state, Coulter said, “From our perspective, working with Israeli industries is advantageous, due to the high speed of development and relatively low cost.”

According to Israel Defense, joint DRS-Israeli projects include: a hydraulic bridge launcher system for the US Army, to be installed on Abrams tanks (with Taas Israel Military Industries Ltd.); the “Windbreaker” missile defense system (with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.); the sale of air-purification and flow systems (with Beth-El Industries); and active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar technology (with RADA Electronic Industries, Ltd.)

Explaining that the advantage to Israel from cooperation with his company is DRS’ understanding of and connection with the US Defense Department, Coulter said, “The US defense budget is the largest in the world, and continues to be so. So the American market will continue to be the main target of any defense industry, whether American or Israeli.”