Watan-A military report reveals significant and rapid advancements in defense relations between Israel and Morocco since the normalization of relations under US sponsorship through the Abraham Accords, enabling Rabat to secure multiple Israeli arms deals.
According to the defense and weapons news site “Zona Militar,” the Israeli company “BlueBird” will soon open a site to manufacture drones in Morocco.
BlueBird CEO Ronen Nadir was quoted as saying that the company has already established a local production facility that will commence operations in the near future.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), one of the country’s leading defense companies, acquired 50% of BlueBird’s shares.
The report states that the Israeli Ministry of Defense recently received a new shopping list from Rabat for Israeli-made defense systems.
Morocco re-established relations with Israel as part of the “Abraham Accords,” mediated by the United States in late 2020, and relations between the two countries have improved since then.
Secret Defense Relations
The site’s report indicates that even before the Abraham Accords, Israel and Morocco had “special defense relations” that remained secretive.
Morocco needs advanced weapon systems, and the new relations with Israel have opened highly profitable options for Rabat.
In February 2023, Israel and Morocco signed a $500 million deal to supply the kingdom with the Barak MX air and missile defense system manufactured by IAI.
Morocco also acquired the Israeli Skylock Dome system, an anti-drone system, in 2021.
The “Barak-MX” system is an air defense system designed to deal with missile and aircraft threats. It operates on both naval and land platforms.
The drone manufacturing facility is not the only deal between the company and Morocco, as Rabat previously purchased 150 eVTOL drones from Israeli company “BlueBird.”
Morocco is evaluating more types of Israeli-made unmanned aerial systems. The deal included a large number of Spy X tracking weapon systems manufactured by the Israeli company.
The operational range of “SpyX” is 50 kilometers, and it is equipped with an integrated payload, sensor, and advanced video tracker to enable independent and precise electro-optical guided attacks on the target, according to the site’s report.
To increase its effectiveness, a warhead weighing 2.5 kilograms (such as anti-personnel, anti-vehicle, or anti-tank warheads) is loaded into the system before launch, depending on the desired impact on the target.