History
Rafael was established in 1948 as the Science Corps (Hebrew: חיל המדע, known by the acronym HEMED, Hebrew: חמד) under the leadership of Shlomo Gur. It was renamed the Research and Design Directorate (Hebrew: אגף הפיתוח והתיכנון) in 1952. In 1952 David Ben-Gurion decided to split into two agencies the activities of HEMED. The pure scientific research was left with HEMED, while the development of weapons was placed in the new EMET agency.
In 1954 Ben-Gurion decided to change the name of EMET to RAFAEL. It was reorganized as Rafael in 1958.
In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin asked Amos Horev to become Chairman of the Board of Rafael, following many years in which Horev had served as chairman of Rafael's advisory committee. Horev served as Chairman until January 2001.
Read more about this topic: Rafael Advanced Defense Systems
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