Elbit wins UAV contract for Operation Watchkeeper
U.K. subsidiary of Israel’s leading non-government-owned defense company wins $110 million UAV project for the British military
It appears that everywhere you look these days, you see another contract signed by Israeli defense and electronic contractor Elbit Systems. The company’s British subsidiary, UK-UAV Tactical Systems, has won a contract, valued at $110 million, to supply intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance [ISTAR] support capability to the British Army. The subsidiary was awarded the contract by Thales, the prime contractor of Operation Watchkeeper, designed to supply tactical unmanned aerial vehicles to the British Army.
The contract calls for UK-UAV Tactical Systems — 51 percent of which is owned by Elbit Systems and the rest by Thales — to supply the Elbit-designed Hermes-450 UAV systems. The contract would also include the training of British Defense Ministry staff. The work will be managed from the U-TacS facility in Leicester, UK, which currently employs 100 personnel.
The initial August 2005 contract award to Thales UK was worth around £700 million, and the program expected to create or sustain about 2,100 high-quality manufacturing jobs in the United Kingdom. Last year Elbit was named as part of the Boeing-led group which won the $2 billion SBInet contract to secure U.S. borders.
-read more about Operation Watchkeeper in LCDR Bryan Bender’s, “Command 2010 — Answering the Call: Transforming the Way We Stand the Watch,” U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings (Fall 2006)
