Iran’s government-imposed nationwide Internet blackout – one of the longest and most extensive in Iran’s history, cut off over 90 million people from digital communication channels, also jamming and disrupting satellite communications to degrade their effectiveness as a workaround to reach the outside world – draws our attention to the fact that today, communication is a weapon.
Modern conflicts are no longer fought only on land, at sea, and in the air. They are also fought in space and in cyberspace. Fiber-optic networks, cellular infrastructure, cloud services, and data centers are among the first assets targeted, whether through kinetic strikes, cyber operations, or electronic warfare.
Whenever communications over fiber-optic networks or satellites are disrupted, the impact can be profound in terms of access to information, public safety, and national resilience. The need to protect communication infrastructure is therefore commensurate.
When connectivity is challenged, the ability of military, intelligence, and civil leadership to continue functioning depends on resilient alternatives. Space-based communication plays a critical role in keeping decision-makers connected when terrestrial systems are unavailable.
It is important to distinguish between fiber-optic and satellite communication, as each has its own set of vulnerabilities and strengths. While satellite control is more distributed, fiber-optic communication is largely centralized. This, alongside the fact that fiber is terrestrial, makes it a clear infrastructure target.
Valuable and resilient
Satellites offer resilience to ground disruptions, which is especially valuable when terrestrial networks are disabled or destroyed.
However, satellites require dedicated protection against jamming and interference techniques. And while today fiber-optic communications are harder to intercept, in the near future quantum computers are expected to be powerful enough to weaken or break today’s cryptographic algorithms.
“Harvest now, decrypt later” threats are already a reality. Attackers steal and store encrypted data today, betting that they will be able to decrypt it once quantum computing matures.
Equally important is independence. Relying on foreign governments, even trusted allies, creates strategic vulnerability. Against this backdrop, communication sovereignty has become a core component of national resilience.
The European Union has understood that autonomy in space is as critical as in air and cyber. For Israel, it is an operational necessity.
Israel has long understood this. Through Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and its Space Division, the state has built and operates advanced communication satellites such as the AMOS series, designed to provide secure, independent strategic communications. These platforms are not just commercial infrastructure; they are part of Israel’s national continuity architecture, enabling encrypted voice, data, and command links even when ground-based networks are degraded or attacked.
The logic is the same as the EU’s new system: If you do not own and control your space-based communication layer, someone else ultimately will.
While national resilience has always lain at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, the challenge of infrastructure resilience in modern warfare continues to evolve, driving innovation in deep tech and cybersecurity.
This evolution is reshaping defense-tech investment.
At Elron Ventures, our focus on deep-tech defense reflects the understanding that modern warfare depends on resilient, secure infrastructure.
Portfolio company CyberRidge protects critical data flows over fiber-optic networks from interception, surveillance, and quantum-era decryption using photonic encryption. A company such as Commcrete complements this landscape by providing satellite communications (satcom) on the move, enabling secure and reliable communication even in the most remote or hostile environments without clear line-of-sight to satellites.
Together, these technologies illustrate a broader trend: The need to stay connected is increasingly shaping national resilience strategies and defense-tech investment.
Lisya Bahar Manoah is chairperson of Elron Ventures and managing partner of the Arieli Group. Yaniv Shnieder is CEO of Elron Ventures