deepening partnership.
In mid-January, Elbit Systems – one of Israel’s three major defense companies, along with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries – announced that its UK subsidiary had received a $166 million contract for the Royal Navy’s Future Naval Training Program. It was only the latest example of deepening cooperation between the Israel and UK militaries in the face of new threats, new technologies, and new war-fighting strategies.
What Israel Offers: technological innovation married to real-world experience
Increasingly, Israel is a key partner for the UK on defense technology while Israel’s experience over the last several years in confronting complex adversaries on the changing modern battlefield is informing militaries from London to New Delhi. Israel and the UK signed an agreement on military cooperation in December 2020. At the heart of what makes Israel unique, compared to other British partners and allies, is that Israel’s hi-tech military has a plethora of real-world experience dealing with the latest threats. These threats include Iranian-made drones, such as the one that penetrated Israeli airspace in February 2018, and Iran’s extensive missile program that has transferred technology to militants in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.