By clicking on one of the categories to the right, you can access all the articles I’ve written on a particular topic.
You are encouraged to contribute, and add your knowledge and wisdom to this record. Feel free to be critical, I don’t mind.
If you find this information useful, please consider linking to it on your website, to help raise the profile of the blog. Thanks.
Elbit System in the US and General Dynamics in the US have formed a joint venture, UAS Dynamics, LLC, to provide ‘unmanned aerial systems’ (UAS, or drones) to the Department of Defense and other U.S. government customers.
The new ‘UAS’ would be based on the Israeli Hermes or Skylark drones. The Hermes 450 drones have been the basis for the UK Watchkeeper system.
General Dynamics in its partnership with Grumman was frozen out of the £850 million Watchkeeper programme by the Elbit/Thales consortium.
Since General Dynamics is a top ISTAR provider, including from its UK operations (Hastings and otherwise) it is not surprising that it is linked with an Israeli drone company.
The government of the UK has often admonished Israel in public over its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and firestorm attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza strip, both of which resulted in heavy civilian casualties. It has also threatened to cancel export permits for a small amount of arms exports to Israel, primarily drone engines produced by an Israeli owned company in the UK.
But the UK maintains strong links with the Israeli military and arm industry, and this integration continues to grow.
The UK has an £850 million programme to acquire Israeli drone technology under the Watchkeeper programme.
Israeli arms companies like Elbit and Rafael regularly exhibit in UK based arms fairs, and Israeli military commanders regularly speak at UK military conferences. (see elsewhere in this blog).
BAE hopes to partner with the Israeli Defense Force and Israeli Industry to provide heavy armoured troop carriers for the Israeli army and for export.
Elbit Systems will be exhibiting at the International Armoured Vehicles Expo in London, on 1-5 February, 2010, at the Excel Centre. At the conference Elbit will be represented by Admon Yahuda, vice president of Land Platforms and Weapons Systems division of Elbit.
Also exhibiting will be Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
The conference and expo is being produced by the International Quality and Productivity Center
Russia is to buy another $100 million of Israeli drones from Israel Aerospace Industries. In the recent conflict with Georgia, Russia found out that its defences were severely hampered by its lack of drones. Georgian drones (ironically supplied by Israel) were able to operate on the frontier while Russians had to rely on expensive and cumbersome Tupolov bombers to gather intelligence.
At the time Russia was angered by Israeli arms sales to Georgia, and threatened to provide air defence for Iran (click ‘Georgia’ on the list to the left for more information) which would have help Iran protect its nuclear sites from Israeli or US attacks.
Is this sale an attempt by Israel to make up to Russia for arming a beligerant on Russia’s frontier, or simply a commercial transaction?
Elbit Systems of Israel, whose subsidiaries provide security sytems for illegal West Bank settlements, and the Israeli ’security wall’, is the provider of the technology behind the new UK Watchkeeper drone system.
For a report of Elbit’s other activities see: Stop the Wall
Elbit Systems is important to people in the UK because it is an important contractor for the UK Watchkeeper drone system. Elbit is also involved in providing ’security’ to many agencies in Israel, including those that protect the ‘apartheid wall’, and protect numerous illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Elbit is involved in Israeli security primarily through Elbit Security, and Elbit Electro Optics (some products). Elbit Systems also supplied UAV’s during combat in both Gaza and the West Bank, according to ‘Exposing the Israeli Occupation Industry‘ website. The same website suggests that Elbit has been building and unmanned ground vehicle for patrolling the ’seamline’, along with Controp Precision Technologies, and Tomcar. They list the major shareholders of Elbit as the Federman family, (since 2004) through the Federman Group. (See end of article for more on the Federman Group)
More than one director of Elbit Systems, have been high ranking officers in the Israeli military, including Gideon Sheffer, executive officer, and Nathan Sharony(74), who retired as a Major General after 30 years in the IDF. Sharony is a well connected high flyer. Sharony is a member of the Council for Peace and Security, (composed mostly of retired military) which supports a Palestinians state in the West Bank and Gaza, but which opposes most other Palestinian demands.
Elbit has provided surveillance technology to the US for its wall between the US and Mexico. More-includes border drone.
Elbit Electro Optics (El-op) provided LORRO surveillance cameras for the Ariel section of the wall, and the A-ram section.
The Federman Group is composed of David Federman, his brother and his father, Michael Federman. David Federman(bio) has a B.A. from Tel Aviv University, and is a Captain in the Reserve of the Israeli Air Force. Along with another company Federman Group recently bought controlling interest in Haifa Oil Refineries. They appear to be involved in many other companies, including Carmel Olefins, Elite Industries, etc. Here’s an article discussing more of David Federman’s business affairs.
Watchkeeper is a new drone system being build by the UK, based on the Elbit Systems (Israel) Hermes 450 drone. The Prime contractor for Watchkeeper is Thales UK, which awarded a contract for a large part of the program to U-TacS, 51% owned by Elbit Systems.(The other 49% of UTacS is owned by Thales). U-TacS is more formally known as UAV Tactical Systems Ltd., of Scudamore Road, Leicester, UK.
Recently the Norwegian Government Pension Fund withdrew its investments in Elbit Systems because of that company’s role in building the Israeli security wall. More
A core plank of Elbit Systems social responsibility charter is ‘adopt a regiment’, also support for Zionism 2000. The social responsibility report contains a list of Elbit directors and management, with short biographies.
In an article 3 November, 2009, the UK announced that it may develop armed drone technology, quite possibly on its Watchkeeper drones, which are based on the Israeli Hermes 450 drone (battle tested in Palestine). The UK has spent £800 million to buy this technology from an Israeli company and its partners.
Click on ‘Watchkeeper’ on list to the right for more info.
more to follow…
Talking to someone who protested the DESI arms trading show in Docklands, East London this summer, I was made aware that one or more of the companies at DESI were demonstrating drones above the streets of east London. I wasn’t able to find a published record of this, but I did come across an article about the proposed use of drones to survey crowds at the 2012 Olympics in London.
In future all public gatherings of note may be monitored by spy-in-the-sky robotic drones, which can say in the sky for hours and return high resolution photos for future viewing of security officers. With protesters now being rebranded as 
‘domestic extremists’ by the police, this is a worrying trend. No more will the intimidating thud of police helicopters be heard overhead; now observations will be made quietly and almost unseen.
After decades of military subsidies and arms imports from the US, Israel’s military has a high degree of interoperability with the US and NATO. As a burgeoning arms manufacturer and arms trader Israel this linkage is increasing. For example, because Israel has a state of the art drone industry, battle tested repressing Palestinians in the West Bank, Israeli drones are becoming a staple of many NATO armouries including the UK, Canada, and Australia.
While it is understandable that NATO member countries might want to guarantee Israel’s security, there is no consequent pressure on Israel to address its repression of Palestinians. Indeed, the military integration of Israel and its arms industry into western ‘defences’ provides crucial support for the militarists in the Israeli government, and undermines completely any intended diplomatic efforts in other areas.
Some questions:
How integrated are Israeli and NATO militaries?
What agreements provide for Israeli/NATO cooperation and interoperability?
How often are Israeli trainers used in NATO, and vice versa?
Do Israeli companies use experiences repressing Palestinians to sell arms?
