IAI is considered the largest defense company in Israel, with 17,000 workers. According to Nissan, during the last two years, 1600 have gone on pension, and in their place a thousand younger workers have been absorbed. Despite the growth in sales, the company has not increased the number of workers. “We underwent internal reorganization and recruited new workers from outside only when we couldn’t find qualified workers within the company”, says the CEO. IAI’s largest market is India. But the
Business News
country with whom economic relations are rapidly developing is, curiously, Russia, whose security relationship with Israel, generally speaking, is not the best, especially after the Israeli military attaché, Colonel Dr. Vadim Leiderman, was expelled last May. IAI claims that the Leiderman affair will not set back the giant project that it signed with Russia last year, to build the infrastructure for UAV production on Russian soil. In the coming years IAI’s gain from the deal is estimated at $300 million.
Relations between IAI and Russia will also come to fruition with the launching of the communications satellite “Amos 6” that is expected in late 2011. The satellite is currently in the final stages of production, and will be launched into space by its owner – the Israeli company Spacecom. The actual launching will be made by a Russian company that operates the launch facility in Uzbekistan. “IAI really is enjoying a peak year”, says Itzhak Nissan, “but we hope to break the record next year”.
Recent Transactions
Camero has supplied Xavier TM400 radars - tactical through-wall imaging solutions - to KLPD (Netherlands’ elite counter-terrorism unit). The company is in advanced talks for additional sales. Israel’s HBA has won a tender as the exclusive representative of Safariland, the leading American supplier of law enforcement and riot dispersal equipment. As a result, HBA expects a 50% spike in sales. Elbit Systems is equipping an Asian country with advanced training systems for armored and infantry forces at $32.7 million. The project will be
carried out over the next three years. IAI sold anoter lightweight intelligence gathering aircraft to a Latin American client. The plane, a B350 Beechcraft, is produced by an Elbit subsidiary and is designed for police intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Controp (security & Defense) has sold a number of lightweight Shapo (Multi-Sensor Payload Observation System) camera units to the air force of a South American country for environmental monitoring, as well as security and defense missions.
Elbit Systems signed a contract to set up a helicopter pilot training center for Macedonian military and security forces. Elbit will operate the center over an eight-year period. The contract is estimated at 43 million euro. The Israeli startup Ron Tal, which was acquired by Verint, has won a tender to establish a C2 (command & control) system for the San Francisco International Airport. The Nextiva-MR-62 system automatically identifies irregular events. Orbit will supply the US Navy with a telemetry (wireless remote control) communication system for
a fleet base. The system will be used mainly for measurement and data processing in testing fields. SDS (Suspect and Detection Systems) will supply three types of night vision sharpshooting and surveillance systems to the Indian Defense Ministry. The $44 million deal will go into effect in the third quarter of 2011 and be completed by late 2012. IAI has sold the Czech army POP (Plug-in Optronic Payload) lightweight optical systems. The system, mounted on armored vehicles, is used by forces in Afghanistan. The deal is worth several million dollars.
JUNE 2011
51