The British army’s main global response force is now equipped with new Israeli technology being used in Gaza.
The Air Assault Brigade, based in Colchester, has been training with high-tech weapons sights manufactured by Israeli arms firm, Smartshooter.
The brigade is held at high readiness to respond to crises, including warfighting, “anywhere in the world”, the army says.
Last month soldiers in the brigade shot down enemy drones in an exercise on Salisbury Plain using newly-acquired weapons sights from the Israeli firm.
The sophisticated scopes are attached to assault rifles and other guns and give soldiers a high probability of a hit.
They can recognise a target, track its movements, and maintain a lock on the target even if it or the user moves.
The army says it intends to use the equipment against drones, but the specialist sights can also be used against land-based targets.
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Every soldier a sniper
Soldiers in the Israel Defence Forces “are using thousands of Smartshooter’s sights in the fighting on various fronts”, Israeli media site Globes has reported.
The company, which is managed by Israeli arms industry veterans, produces a range of precision-targeting equipment that has been developed under the direction and funding of the Israeli defence ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research & Development.
Smartshooter’s weapons sights first came into use by the Israeli military in 2018.
The IDF’s use of Smartshooter’s equipment has since expanded, with Israeli special forces and commando teams such as the Maglan unit and Golani brigade deploying variants of the company’s weapons sights technology in Gaza.
“The system that turns every soldier into a sniper” is how Israel’s defence ministry has described the introduction of Smartshooter’s equipment.
“Honoured to support the IDF and global forces”, Smartshooter has tweeted in response.
‘Demonstrated on the battlefield’
In a post earlier this year, the company noted that its equipment was “one of the most useful new items being demonstrated on the battlefield”.
Journalist Antony Loewenstein has shown how Israel has routinely deployed new types of military equipment against Palestinians and then marketed and sold these around the world.
He told Declassified: “Smartshooter is just one of many Israeli companies testing equipment on occupied Palestinians. It’s a highly profitable business and the slaughter in Gaza isn’t slowing down the trade. If anything, it’s increasing due to many nations attracted to the Israeli model of subjugation and control.”
Other military items tested by Israel for the first time on the battlefield in Gaza include the 7.62mm Negev machine gun, Holit and Yated shoulder-fired rockets, the ‘Iron Sting’ mortar shell and a fifth-generation Merkava tank.
Amid the war in Gaza, Smartshooter’s equipment was shown off at an arms exhibition in September sponsored by Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Viking Arms, a Yorkshire-based company that distributes Smartshooter’s equipment in Britain, presented the products at an arms fair known as DVD2024, which took place in Bedfordshire.
Viking Arms said “the event will emphasise learning from current conflicts” and would involve “discussions with Army Headquarters personnel”.
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‘Tactical advantage’
In June 2023, Britain’s MoD purchased an initial 225 Smartshooter gun sights in a contract with Viking Arms worth £4.6m.
The contract is part of a five-year framework agreement worth up to £20m to deliver more of the equipment to “dismounted close combat” soldiers. The British army started to receive the weapons sights in early 2024.
It says the Smartshooter equipment will provide soldiers with “a cutting-edge weapon sight that will give them a tactical advantage countering” drones. They will be available to “Very High Readiness units across the British army” as well as to forces in the Navy and Royal Air Force.
The sights were first tested by the Army’s experimentation battalion, 2 Yorks, in 2022.
Smartshooter’s weapons sights are also deployed by US special forces and several other Nato armies.
Last month, Declassified revealed a secret UK military project with Israel, codenamed HEZUK, which sought to strengthen intelligence collaboration and military cooperation.
Details of the plan concerning defence “capability” included a number of “MoD programmes with potential Israeli solutions” such as countering small drones.
