Israel has had and has a wide range of capabilities for combating close and distant threats. That said, unquestionably one of the most critical of these abilities, especially against Iran and the Houthis, is its satellite fleet.
The core piece of the Israeli-made satellite fleet for national security and intelligence collection purposes is the Ofek-class satellite system. In keeping with this, there are also older Eros-class satellites with exceptional surveillance capabilities.
The most recent addition to this satellite fleet is the Dror 1 satellite, which provides communication capabilities. All three of the above satellites were manufactured by the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Israel also collaborates with certain foreign countries to enhance its satellite capabilities. Recently, for instance, Elbit Systems provided camera technologies on a joint Italian-NATO satellite.
On July 1, the Defense Ministry announced that Israeli satellites took photos of tens of millions of sq.km. in Iran, leading up to and during the June war.
With the Islamic Republic sprawling across an area of around 1.6m. sq.km., much of the Israeli operation focused on the Tehran area or Western Iran, which means that the IDF photographed portions of Iran dozens of times at least.
Further, Israel’s IAI-made satellites conducted surveillance of hundreds of different targets each day. Every day, the satellite fleet was able to collect data pertaining to hundreds of thousands of sq.km.
As the Jewish state has attained a new level of power, quality, and volume in satellite use, the ministry said that Israel has also radically altered how it uses them.
Instead of receiving an intermittent snapshot of the status of a specific location in Iran for general analysis, the satellites are now able to maintain real-time, constant tactical and operational surveillance of many places throughout the Islamic Republic.
The bottom line is that the Jewish state can now use satellites against Iran and other faraway adversaries like the Houthis to alter air force attacks based on real-time analysis of Tehran’s ballistic missile shooting patterns and trends.
These satellites enabled new levels of immediate battle damage assessments to determine the severity of damage to a target in Iran and the number of additional aerial sorties required.
For more complex, large targets, satellites helped clarify which portions of the target needed to be struck again vs which portions had already been taken off the board.
IDF strikes on Yemen's Houthis
Since mid-2024, the IDF has initiated approximately 20 counterstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Although ministry officials focused on Iran during their presentation about Israeli satellites on July 1, there can be little doubt that these same satellites are assisting with current operations against the Houthis. They will undoubtedly be involved in future endeavors of a similar vein as well.
While Jerusalem has found creative ways to perform surveillance of distant countries using drones and aircraft, generally speaking, it is more difficult to use them regularly for such missions, which are beyond their standard and known operating ranges, as Israel does in Gaza and Lebanon.
This would require a heavier reliance on satellite surveillance.
Although the last Ofek satellite was launched in 2023, The Jerusalem Post has learned that the next Ofek satellite launch may be closer around the corner than people might expect.
On August 11, the IAI announced that the Dror 1 communications satellite had successfully reached its designated altitude of 36,000 km. and commenced its operational mission.
Having been launched on July 13, once Dror 1 achieved its planned trajectory, the satellite “transmitted telemetry, confirming the deployment of the solar panels, the communication antennas, and the activation of its main engine, which positioned the satellite precisely in its intended orbit.”
IAI president and CEO Boaz Levy said on August 11, “The telemetry received from Israel’s national communications satellite Dror 1 confirms its full functionality and successful entry into orbit, marking another major milestone in Israel’s journey to space independence.”
“This next generation of communication satellites, exemplified by Dror 1, embodies engineering excellence and foresight, delivering advanced solutions to meet Israel’s diverse and evolving needs,” he said.
The IAI added that “Dror 1 offers unique, advanced communication technologies that will enable flexible, secure, and reliable communication throughout its operational life.”
Two other benefits of the Dror 1 are that Israel will not need to ask for assistance from different countries for complex communication issues and that it can avoid the risk of “back door” spying on Israel by foreign countries, were it forced to use foreign countries’ satellites instead.
In a world where support for the Jewish state is at a new low and more countries are debating conditioning their cooperation with Israel on various national security issues, satellite independence could be as crucial in communications as it is for surveillance.
The IAI has led Israel’s space program since the 1980s, beginning with the launch of its first observation satellite, the Ofek 1. Since then, the company has developed and launched additional communications and observation satellites.
However, in 2016, the IAI’s Israeli-made Amos 6 communications satellite exploded during a ground static fire test, leading to the loss of nearly $250m., setting back the small and vulnerable Israeli satellite industry.
Then, around five years ago, the government began supplementing its own funding to put the IAI back into the business of launching several new satellites, approximately one every five years or so, over the next two decades.
Conceptually, the government aimed to preserve as much Israeli independence as possible in the field of space technology, part of its efforts to confront the emerging security threat posed by space.
This is the goal, even if SpaceX and the US are providing a partial helping hand for launches of communication satellites that are too large for the smaller Israeli surveillance satellite launchers.
Dror 1 was the first of the fresh line of Israeli communications satellites and is slated to operate for around 15 years.