Artificial intelligence has captured the world’s imagination. Start-ups, investors, and policymakers alike are racing to harness the transformative potential of software-driven innovation. But when it comes to Israel’s long-term security, AI alone will not suffice. The kind of technological edge that ensures survival and strategic superiority requires something much harder, slower, and riskier: Deep Tech.
Deep Tech is not about apps or rapid algorithmic upgrades. It is about fundamental scientific and engineering breakthroughs-advances in advanced energy systems, materials science, biotechnology, and space. These innovations take years to mature, demand patient capital, and often involve high technological risk. But they also deliver capabilities that are decisive and enduring, not easily copied or neutralized.
Unlike short-cycle software tools, Deep Tech requires universities, labs, and an entire ecosystem of researchers and engineers working together over decades. This is why countries that want real independence in their defense and industry cannot rely on quick wins alone.
Why National Security Depends on Deep Tech
Modern conflicts demonstrate that low-cost, fast-moving solutions can be disruptive. Adversaries have shown how drones assembled from commercial components, or improvised electronic warfare systems, can frustrate even sophisticated militaries. But disruption is not the same as superiority.
True security comes from capabilities that cannot be quickly imitated or outpaced. Deep Tech is slower, riskier, and far more resource-intensive than software. Yet it creates technologies that form the backbone of national defense and industrial sovereignty. For Israel, this means making the deliberate choice to invest in the hard sciences — because speed alone will not keep us safe.
Four Deep Tech frontiers critical for Israel
To understand what is at stake, consider four areas (as an example) where Israeli defense industries and the IDF increasingly look to start-ups and innovators for breakthroughs:
1. Advanced Energy Systems
Modern forces live and die by power. Yet batteries and logistics remain a constant vulnerability. Lightweight, high-density energy storage could allow soldiers to stay in the field longer, power advanced communications and sensors, and reduce reliance on vulnerable supply lines. For Israel, often operating in contested urban or remote environments, resilient energy solutions could decisively change operational endurance.
2. Advanced Materials and Electronics
Every gram saved in armor or avionics can translate into more range, more payload, or greater survivability. New composites, semiconductors, and resilient materials enable cheaper, lighter, and more durable platforms. For Israel’s defense industries, breakthroughs in this domain mean weapons and systems that are both more effective and more economical to deploy in large numbers.
3. Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology
Battlefields of the future will demand not just firepower, but sustainability. On-demand biological synthesis can create fuels, medical supplies, or even replacement parts in the field. It can also provide defensive tools against chemical or biological threats. For Israel, which must often plan for prolonged conflict or siege conditions, the ability to generate critical resources locally is a game-changer.
4. Small-Satellite Systems
Space is now a contested and democratized domain. Miniaturized satellites with rapid launch cycles can provide persistent intelligence, communications, and resilience against attacks on larger space assets. For Israel, small-satellite constellations ensure continuous surveillance and independent access to critical data — a cornerstone of strategic autonomy.
Building the ecosystem
Deep Tech is not quick or easy. That is precisely why it matters. To sustain leadership in these areas, Israel must:
Reinvest in academia: Physics, engineering, biology, and chemistry faculties must be fully funded and expanded.
Preserve expertise: Scientists and engineers in rare disciplines must be retained through scholarships, career pathways, and international collaborations.
Provide patient capital: Venture funds and government programs tailored to Deep Tech must support long, risky development cycles.
Integrate with defense needs: Start-ups must be brought into procurement and experimentation early, ensuring their innovations connect directly with operational requirements.
Why This Matters Now
Relying solely on fast, software-driven innovation risks leaving Israel vulnerable to adversaries who copy, adapt, and overwhelm with scale. What they cannot easily replicate are the breakthroughs in energy, materials, biotechnology, and space that come only from sustained Deep Tech investment.
In other words: cheap and fast is not enough. For Israel, the future lies in going deeper, even when it is harder, slower, and riskier.
Deep Tech is not about speed. It is about resilience, sovereignty, and the kind of enduring superiority that no adversary can erode with improvised tactics. For Israel, investing in Deep Tech is not optional. It is the difference between tactical disruption and strategic dominance.
Software may shape the present. But Deep Tech - in energy, materials, biology, and space - will shape the future. And for Israel, the future must be built not by racing faster, but by going deeper.