The ministry has made a slew of other commitments over the past year to ensure sufficient supplies for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Last May, it announced a 2.8 billion shekel contract with Elbit for mortars, rockets, missiles and more. In October it approved a 2 billion shekel deal with Elbit and state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. to expand production of the Iron Beam, a laser-based missile-interception system designed by Rafael. “We learned the hard way that what we don’t have in Israel, we often can’t get elsewhere,” Zeev Zilber, the defense ministry’s chief economist, said in a February speech in Tel Aviv.