Israel’s defense industry remained one of the top exporters in 2019, broadening its scope of business, the Defense Ministry announced.
By Aryeh Savir, TPS
The International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israel Ministry of Defense (SIBAT) on Monday released a report summarizing the country’s defense exports for 2019, showing that new contracts totaled $ 7.203 billion (about NIS 25 billion).
During the year, some 120 defense industries entities signed dozens of significant contracts around the world.
Israel’s largest market in 2019 was in Asia and the Pacific, with 41% of the sales, Europe with 26%, North America with 25%, Latin America with 4% and Africa with 4%.
The radar andeElectric warfare systems led the market with 17% of the sales, missiles, rockets and air defense systems followed with 15%, manned aircraft and avionics with 13%, observation and electronics at 12%, firing and launching systems with 10%, UAV and hovercraft systems with 8%, information and cyber intelligence with systems 7%, communication systems at 7%, vehicles and armored vehicles with 4%, customer service at 3%, ammunition and arms with 3%, and marine systems with 1%.
SIBAT head Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yair Kulas stated that “despite the intense international challenges and competition, we have managed to keep Israel among the world’s top 10 security exporters with a market share of more than $ 7 billion.”
“The year 2019 was characterized by a significant increase in the number of deals signed, which reflects the strength of the Israeli defense industry,” he added.
Referring to 2020 and the global coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, he said that the coming year should have seen continued growth in cross-border transactions (GTG) but “the pandemic has placed the global economy and the security market in a new position.”
SIBAT is making adjustments in the Ministry of Defense’s activities and trying in a variety of ways to “make the crisis an opportunity” for Israel’s security industries, he said.