Established in 1966, it supplies weapons and surveillance technology to the state of Israel as well as countless global state and private clients. It has over 18,000 employees across the world and is a public company whose shares are traded on the NASDAQ and Tel Aviv stock exchanges.
Based in Haifa, Eblit makes approximately 85% of Israel’s surveillance and combat drones and 85% of its land-based military equipment. It also produces software for armed vehicle display systems, weapons and ammunition, surveillance technology, and bombs. Israel’s relentless murdering, controlling, and surveillance of Palestinians is made possible by Elbit technology, from drone strikes to advanced bombs to surveillance technology. It is responsible for the surveillance sensors, facial recognition technology, and surveillance towers across Israel’s apartheid barriers through the West Bank, around the Gaza Strip, and on its borders with Lebanon and Golan Heights. The technology Elbit uses in Israel is manufactured in factories across the globe, including in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Elbit’s technology is also used by states across the globe to surveil and repress dissidents. Marketing its products as “field-proven” to foreign clients, Elbit secured a contract with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to construct surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border and within the Tohono O’odham reservation. Thousands of U.S. local police departments contract some form of digital forensic technology from private firms, over half of which are based in Israel and many of which come from Elbit. The Los Angeles Police Department, for example, has long used Elbit drones among its highly militarized police force.
In 2023, Elbit Systems scored a $71 million contract with the UK Ministry of Defense to supply and operate armored vehicles with the British Army; Elbit has also pitched surveillance drone technology to the UK National Police Air Service. The European Union holds an active contract with Elbit to monitor the Mediterranean coastline for migrants. India – the world’s leading importer of Israeli arms and surveillance technology since the election of Narendra Modi – has used Elbit’s Hermes 900 drones for its army and navy since 2023. The same year, Elbit began a close collaboration with Adani Global, a leading Indian weapons manufacturer which aids in India’s repression of Kashmir.
Elbit Systems is by far the largest weapons and surveillance technology manufacturer in Israel, a country that is consistently a strong exporter in the global arms market and the number one exporter of cyber-surveillance technology. Over 150 active defence companies are based in Israel, surveillance and otherwise, and its weapons comprise 2.3% of the total global market.
