JERUSALEM — Israel’s Elbit Systems has an order backlog of $30 billion, the company announced as part of its quarterly report last week.
Of Israel’s three defense giants, Elbit is the only one that is a public company, while Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are state-owned, so Elbit’s financials can often give a sense of how Israel’s defense industry is doing.
“Our strategic positioning reflects our evolution into a fully integrated end-to-end defense provider across land, sea and air. With demand rising well above historical levels, we continue to focus on order execution,” Elbit’s President and CEO Bezhalel Machlis said. He added that the company was scaling production capacity and increasing use of robotics and AI in automation.
The company said that backlog growth in this quarter was “driven mainly by Israel and Asia, with approximately 71% of the backlog attributable to orders outside Israel. About 49% of the backlog is expected to be performed during the remainder of 2026 and in 2027.” In general the company’s revenues come from a mix of sectors, including C4I, cyber, ISTAR, electronic warfare, ammunition, unmanned aerial systems and lasers.
The company has recently also announced the acquisition of Blue White Robotics by Elbit’s subsidiary Fuse and also a $350 million deal for upgrades on Main Battle Tanks for an unnamed customer.
A big part of that backlog is of course from Israel itself, which has planned record defense spending in the wake of the war in Gaza, as well as the more recent military effort against Iran. But Israel’s defense exports have reached record levels in recent years, as countries around the globe rush to upgrade their militaries and acquire munitions and new technology.
Along those lines, on May 26 Elbit announced a $1.4 billion deal with an unnamed European customer for “extensive military modernization programs” to be performed over a five year period. While the company avoided sharing any real details about the customer or the program, an announcement said it includes “a variety of uncrewed autonomous solutions, advanced networked land electronic warfare (EW), precision-guided munitions (artillery and air-to-ground), coupled with electro-optical designating and reconnaissance systems, all networked by software-defined radios (SDR).”
The company says that this will enable the customer to field an advanced and modern army — appearing to point to a customer in a country in central or eastern Europe which needs more modernization than other Western militaries.
Machlis noted that “our proven experience working with numerous armed forces worldwide, together with our strong in‑house development capabilities and leading‑edge technological expertise, continue to drive growing demand for our solutions and position us as a trusted partner for long‑term military modernization programs.”
The new deal for Elbit follows an increasing footprint in several European countries. In late April, Elbit announced the opening of a new facility in Chitila, Romania that focuses on unmanned aerial systems. Elbit said at the time that this was a “milestone in the company’s ongoing expansion across Europe.”
On April 6 the company also announced a $750 million deal, through Israel’s Ministry of Defense, to supply the Hellenic Ministry of National Defense with its Precise and Universal Launching System (PULS), an artillery system. And in August 2025 Elbit announced a similarly large $1.63 billion contract for an unnamed European customer. Israeli media reported that the customer was Serbia.
