Navy League 2025: General Atomics partners with Rafael on Bullseye missile

Rafael's Ice Breaker, upon which Bullseye is based. Components are likely to change between the two depending on US customer requirements. (Rafael Advanced Defense Systems)

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Israeli company Rafael to bring its Ice Breaker missile to the US under the name ‘Bullseye', GA-EMS announced on 7 April at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space 2025 conference in Washington, DC.

Bullseye is based on Rafael's Ice Breaker missile, which was unveiled in 2022. Ice Breaker is an air-launched, low-observable missile with a 300 km (260.7 n mile) range, which GA-EMS categorises as having achieved Technological Readiness Level (TRL) 8, or flight qualified without having been operationally employed. Ice Breaker is likely to begin operational deliveries in late calendar year 2025 or early 2026, potentially reaching TRL 9 shortly after.

“We had many preliminary discussions [with Rafael] several years ago, but the concentrated effort has been since last July,” Nick Bucci, GA-EMS' vice-president of defence systems and technologies, told Janes . “It's to be determined as to what may change and what may not change [for Bullseye]. There are some things that may change based on requirements that we get from the different customers ... and there may be some things that we have to change because perhaps Israel is not interested in sending certain technologies to the United States, or there may be forbidden components that we might have to replace because they chose a vendor that we're not allowed to utilise. We're going to find that out as we go forward.”

Although changes to Rafael's current version are as-yet-undetermined, Bucci said that the biggest changes would likely be made to meet mission requirements from US armed services.