IWI (Israel Weapon Industries) and Meprolight share a close relationship as both are part of the same parent organization, the SK Group, a global defence and security conglomerate owned by Samy Katsav. This affiliation allows for a synergy between the two companies, as IWI focuses on manufacturing firearms while Meprolight specializes in optical and electro-optical sights. Their collaboration enables the development of integrated solutions, with IWI often showcasing its weapons equipped with Meprolight sights. The two companies also engage in collaborative development, ensuring that Meprolight's sights are designed with IWI's weapons in mind for optimal compatibility and performance.

Thanks to a conversation with Ronen Hamudot, Executive VP Marketing and Sales at SK Group and IWI, and Golan Kalimi, VP Martketing at Meprolight, FW MAG could have a deeper look into this unique industrial conglomerate.

FW MAG: What advantages does the close relationship between the two companies provide in terms of product development and optimization?

Ronen Hamudot: Samy Katsav founded the SK Group in 2004, which became the parent company for both IWI and Meprolight. The acquisitions of these companies occurred as follows. IWI, formerly the light arms division of Israel Military Industries, was acquired by Katsav in 2005. After the purchase, Katsav invested in upgrading the production infrastructure, expanding markets, and broadening the product offering. As Meprolight and IWI came together under the same entity, Katsav was the first to understand how promising the subsector of weapon sights was, and came to the conclusion that in the future every weapon would have needed a sight. Since then, we create integrated weapon systems that leverage the strengths of both companies, providing customers with complete, battle-tested solutions. We were the first to propose weapons and sights as part of the same offer, thus with products optimized to work together by design. Today our competitors are imitating this model, but I find that they have a long way ahead before having such strong synergy.

Golan Kalimi: Katsav entered into partnership in Meprolight with Kibbutz Maayan Zvi in 2002. At that time, Meprolight had only a few employees. Under SK Group's ownership, Meprolight has grown substantially. These acquisitions were part of Katsav's strategy to build a comprehensive defence and security group. The SK Group has since expanded to include several other companies in the defence sector, creating synergies between its various holdings. I agree with Ronen in assessing that the main advantage we could get from our long-standing relationship is that we can talk to clients as one supplier, one single source and, consequently, one single entity to talk to even for urgent and demanding requirements. This has become an incredible advantage, much appreciated in the market, as it makes life easier for end users and also for procurement.

FW MAG: From your point of view, what are the strength and the challenges of having two separate companies, a joint venture or a merger? How did you decide what formula suits you most?

Ronen Hamudot: As part of the SK Group, both companies benefit from a shared global strategy, enabling them to offer comprehensive solutions to customers worldwide. We have been having the debate about whether to merge or to create a “one company”, and we decided to remain independent in our operations. This allows us to remain agile and responsive to all client requests, as we stay focused on our core business. Therefore, when a request or a demand comes for one company only, the company can respond quickly and directly without complex processes. By the way, as part of the same group under the same owner, we are sure that we are going in the same direction at the strategic level.

Golan Kalimi: Our offer is supply-side, as we propose IWI’s weapons with Meprolight’s sights. However, we have plenty of granular projects in collaboration with other industry companies. It happens that we work with IWI’s competitors and vice versa, that they work with ours. But we consider it business-wise, as we can preserve our special relationship, yet without renouncing to market opportunities that are specific to our products and subsectors. The goal of SK Group is to grow and become as important as possible in the panorama of global defence industry companies, and this is shared among all of us. Then, we work together when we can, but we do not renounce to bring in new opportunities as single companies as well. So, our autonomy contributes to the reach and relevance of the whole group, finally.

FW MAG: How do the R&D teams work together to develop new technologies or products? Are there joint research initiatives or shared facilities?

Ronen Hamudot: First, both IWI and Meprolight maintain strong ties to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which allows them to receive direct feedback and tailor their products to meet military needs. Therefore, even before working together, we go in the same direction in terms of mind set, base knowledge of the operational environment, and feedback from the battlefield. Firearms and optics are very different products, so we have separate developments for our company-specific technologies. Nonetheless, when two products have to develop together or we work on a common project, we create a project-tailored team that works together from the very beginning.

Golan Kalimi: When we need to provide a solution, the first step is separating the firearm-specific tasks from the optics-specific ones, and we come up with a base solution. Then, the project-tailored team described by Ronen makes sure that firearms and optics are optimized to work together through dedicated studies and tests. Facilities are not a problem, as part of the same group we can share what is needed in function of the project. However, we take care of guaranteeing to clients that work only with one of us that information is secure and does not leak and that our collaboration is focused on specific products.

FW MAG: Can you provide examples of how this synergy led to improved solutions for end-users?

Ronen Hamudot: We are the only ones working this way since 2005, of course we can! One of the most recent is the development of the ARAD family of firearms, a modern modular assault rifle platform designed to meet the needs of special forces and infantry units. During the development of the assault rifle, Meprolight staff regularly visit IWI's shooting range to test their sights on various firearms.

Golan Kalimi: That’s an excellent example! Several Meprolight staff are IDF veterans, with some still active in reserve units. This expertise contributes to our R&D processes. This notwithstanding, to guarantee high performance, to make a perfect match between products such as, for example, MEPRO M5/RDS Pro red dot sight, M21 self-illuminated reflex sight or FORESIGHT and the ARAD family we needed extensive tests in day, night, dust, adverse weather conditions and different terrains. For instance, when optics and firearms are not optimized, the recoil affects negatively the weapon’s performance. When we work on a shared project, we make sure that the optics’ accuracy is not affected by the firearm’s recoil. We did it for the ARAD but also with the TAVOR family of rifles and the NEGEV machine gun, to make a few examples.

Ronen Hamudot: The most recent example in this sense is ARBEL, the world's first computerized small arms system, launched by IWI in April 2024. The system is designed to help soldiers prevent errors and improve shooting performance, especially in high-stress situations and fleeting engagements. Our main expertise is about the production of weapons, and this kind of technology, along with the size, weight and endurance matters that go along, are relatively new to us. The ARBEL system is optic agnostic, meaning it can work with various optical sights. This was possible thanks to the help of Meprolight’s engineers, who master all the technologies related to illumination, ergonomics, batteries, weight reduction of electronic equipment, etc. Putting a computer into a weapon implied that we had to share technologies and address this challenge together, somehow.

Golan Kalimi: Ensuring that an electronic device can operate for hours on a weapon is not easy. We have expertise to make it happen, but our technology can be optimized on weapons thanks to IWI helping with their data sets on ergonomics, ballistics, etc. Thanks to this cooperation, all Meprolight products can work with IWI weapons. But, in the case of ARBEL, sharing knowledge led to the possibility for IWI to produce an optic agnostic product that can potentially redefine combat effectiveness on the modern battlefield. Hand in hand, we can go this far!

FW MAG: Thank you for your insights!

Follow us on Telegram and Facebook.