Israel intends to launch mass production of its own guided aerial bombs over the next two years, seeking to reduce its dependence on arms supplies from the United States. The Jerusalem Post reports this.

According to the newspaper, the course toward expanding domestic ammunition production was set back in 2024 by decision of then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The move was prompted by the introduction of partial restrictions by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on the supply of certain types of weapons to Israel. Before that, the country had relied to a significant extent for decades on American supplies of such munitions.

Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Defense Amir Baram said that one of the ministry’s key priorities today is increasing the production of aerial munitions.

“We are actively replenishing stocks of all expended munitions in order to be prepared for any turn of events. Decisions to expand and accelerate production lines, made even before the operation against Iran, will make it possible to bring output volumes to a fundamentally new level,” he noted.

As The Jerusalem Post writes, Israel is already producing its own guidance kits that make it possible to convert conventional free-fall aerial bombs into precision-guided weapons. However, current production capacity still does not meet the country’s needs, so the authorities intend to significantly increase output. At the same time, specific production figures and the technical characteristics of the new munitions have not been disclosed.