The International Defense Cooperation Directorate at Israel’s Ministry of Defense (SIBAT) marked the second consecutive year of increased defense export contracts, according to a press release sent out Wednesday.
The data show that Israel’s defense industries signed $6.5 billion in new contracts throughout 2016. This is an increase of $800 million (+14%) from the previous year.
SIBAT Director, Brig. Gen. (res) Mishel Ben Baruch, said in statement: “We are proud to conclude a challenging and successful year for the Israeli defense industry, which succeeded in collaborative work to achieve new deals amounting to $6.5 billion, $800 million more than 2015.”
With the help of SIBAT and other Defense Ministry departments, the Israeli defense industries signed dozens of significant contracts which allowed for the continued trend of strengthening Israel’s place in the global defense market.
Ben Baruch noted that “the increase in the volume of new contracts signed expresses a global trend of pulling out of the recession, especially in Europe and North America, and increased defense budgets in the face of growing security challenges. The Israeli defense industries have won great prestige around the world, thanks to advanced quality technology. We are proud to conclude a challenging and successful year for the Israeli defense industry. We succeeded in working together to bring about a significant increase in the volume of defense exports.”
The press release included a breakdown of defense exports according to form of technology: Aircraft and aerial system improvements (20%); observation and optronics (18%); aerial defense (15%); ammunition and weapons stations (13%); radars and EW (12%); information and intelligence (8%); UAVs (7%); telecommunications (4%); maritime (1%); other (2%).
The geographical distribution (in millions $): Asia and the Pacific- 2,611, Europe- 1,795, North America- 1,265, Latin America- 550, Africa- 275.