New research center to produce lasers, advanced detectors for IDF

Defense Ministry awards tender to Soreq Nuclear Research Center and Ben-Gurion University to set up center.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Lab technician using microscope (photo credit: INGIMAGE / ASAP)
Lab technician using microscope
(photo credit: INGIMAGE / ASAP)
The Defense Ministry has selected the Soreq Nuclear Research Center and Ben Gurion University in Beersheba, as the locations for a national research center for future military technologies.
At a cost of $50 million, the Defense Ministry’s Defense Research and Development Directorate will set up the National Center for the Research and Development of advanced Photonics.
The center will pave the way for the development of lasers, advanced detectors, solar cells, and other technologies that will serve the IDF, as well as the Israeli hi-tech industry, the ministry said.
“The photonics field is an advanced and growing technological area, with growing uses in many areas, including: Optical communications, medical lasers, detectors for optical cameras and more.”
“The field is considered by many to be one of the growth engines of hi-tech industries around the world.
It attracts many investments in Israel and abroad, in academia and industry, and it has been defined in many countries as one of the key enabling technologies,” the ministry statement added.
The defense establishment has, in recent years, invested many resources in developing various electro-optical technologies, such as lasers and imaging. The center is set to open in five years.
In coming years, advanced equipment will likely be purchased for research that will serve the civilian sector and defense industries.
“There’s no doubt that setting up the center, and the advanced abilities it will bring, will place the state of Israel in the first class of technology developers in the world, and will make a significant contribution to national security, the economy and to the IDF’s qualitative technological edge,” the Defense Ministry added.