Elbit Systems: Israel's Largest Arms Maker

🔎 Evidence

Israel's largest defense contractor with $25+ billion order backlog
Receives fuel-selector valves for aircraft via JFK shipments
Acquired IMI Systems (Israeli Military Industries) in 2018 for $500 million
Awarded $260 million contract for advanced airborne munitions (August 2025)
Develops drones, pilot helmet displays, cyber security systems, and ammunition

🛠️ What Elbit Systems makes

Founded in Haifa in 1966, Elbit Systems is Israel's largest arms company and, as of 2025, its most valuable listed company, reporting $7.9 billion in revenue for 2025 with a $28 billion order backlog. Roughly 90 percent of its revenue comes from the defense sector. According to the Israeli business daily The Marker, as reported by Action on Armed Violence, Elbit supplies about 85 percent of the drones used by the Israeli military and about 80 percent of its land-force equipment.

Its product lines include the Hermes 450 and Hermes 900 drones, the SkyStriker loitering munition, the ATMOS self-propelled howitzer and PULS rocket launcher, the Iron Fist active protection system, helmet-mounted displays and avionics for the Israeli Air Force's F-16 fleet, and night vision systems. Through its 2018 acquisition of state-owned IMI Systems, Elbit became the exclusive supplier of 155mm artillery shells to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

📄 Elbit weapons documented in Gaza

On April 1, 2024, an Elbit Hermes 450 drone carried out the strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers near Deir al-Balah, on a route the convoy had coordinated with the Israeli military in advance (Business and Human Rights Resource Centre). The research group Who Profits reports that about 20 percent of the Israeli military's targeted killings in Gaza between October 2023 and May 2025 were carried out with the Hermes 450.

Action on Armed Violence has further documented SkyStriker loitering munitions in April 2025 strikes on displacement sites in al-Mawasi that killed at least 30 people, including 14 children; Amnesty International experts identified an Elbit MPR-500 bomb, marketed for dense urban areas, at the site of an April 19, 2024 strike in Rafah; and medical experts identified Elbit's M329 tank rounds from fragmentation injuries at Al-Aqsa Hospital.

📉 Divestment, exclusions, and closures

Elbit has one of the longest institutional-exclusion records of any arms maker. Norway's Government Pension Fund Global excluded it in 2009 over the surveillance system it supplied for the West Bank separation barrier. HSBC divested in 2018 and AXA followed by the end of 2019. In February 2024, Japan's Itochu Aviation ended its cooperation agreement with Elbit, citing the International Court of Justice's provisional-measures order on Gaza. In October 2024, SEC filings showed Barclays had sold all of its Elbit shares, which the bank said it had held on behalf of clients.

Sustained protest has also closed Elbit facilities: its factory in Oldham, England shut in January 2022 after two years of repeated occupations, its subsidiary's Cambridge, Massachusetts office was vacated in August 2024 after a year of weekly protests, and MIT removed Elbit from its Industrial Liaison Program in April 2025.

🗽 The New York connection

Elbit has no office in New York. Its supply chain still runs through the region: The Intercept documented aircraft parts bound for Elbit moving through JFK Airport's cargo terminals, the same chokepoint mapped by our JFK Airport campaign. The paper controls that are supposed to govern military exports, from license to named final recipient, are covered in our end-user certificate (EUC) explainer.

The connection also runs through suppliers. The Nation reported that Elbit purchases drones from Easy Aerial, a manufacturer based at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on city-owned land; the Navy Yard's development corporation declined to renew Easy Aerial's lease in February 2026 after months of community campaigning.

New York public money is invested in Elbit too. The New York Daily News reported in December 2025 that the city's public pension funds increased their investment in Elbit and that their holdings exceed $1.5 million, part of roughly $300 million the funds hold across Israeli companies. Rank-and-file city workers are organizing to demand the pension system divest.

📚 Sources

🏢 Corporate profile

Sector: Public Entanglement
Stock listing: NASDAQ: ESLT
Official site: elbitsystems.com
Wikidata: Q1325369

Sourcing last reviewed June 9, 2026.

❓ Questions

What is Elbit Systems' role in the arms supply chain?

Israel based military systems manufacturer. Elbit Systems appears in Break the Chain's audited database of companies with a documented role moving military cargo through the New York metro area, classified as a defense contractor. The entry is tied to 2 published sources cited on this page.

Where is Elbit Systems located?

Elbit Systems is in JFK Airport, within the New York and New Jersey gateway that Break the Chain maps: JFK Airport, Port Newark and Elizabeth, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

What is the evidence for including Elbit Systems?

Israel's largest defense contractor with $25+ billion order backlog. A company appears here based on already-published sources, which is not a legal conclusion about the company. The sources are listed on this page.

Who owns Elbit Systems?

Elbit Systems is publicly traded on the NASDAQ and Tel Aviv stock exchanges under the ticker ESLT. Its largest shareholder is Federmann Enterprises, the Federmann family holding company, with roughly 42 percent. The Israeli government does not own Elbit, unlike Israel's state-owned arms makers, but it holds a special state share that gives it a national-security veto over major changes in control.

What percentage of Israel's drones does Elbit Systems make?

About 85 percent of the drones used by the Israeli military are supplied by Elbit Systems, along with about 80 percent of the army's land-force equipment, according to the Israeli business daily The Marker in November 2023, as reported by the UK monitoring group Action on Armed Violence.

Does Elbit Systems make white phosphorus munitions?

The white phosphorus shells documented in Gaza and Lebanon since October 2023 were US-made artillery rounds, according to Amnesty International, not Elbit products. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign reports that Elbit manufactured white phosphorus munitions until around 2012, when the company stopped reporting them in its financial statements. The Elbit munitions documented in the current war are listed in the sections above.

Where does Elbit Systems operate in the United States?

Its US arm, Elbit Systems of America, is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, with facilities including Merrimack, New Hampshire; Roanoke, Virginia; Ladson, South Carolina; Talladega, Alabama; and San Antonio, Texas. Elbit lists no facility in New York or New Jersey. Its documented New York connection runs through JFK Airport cargo shipments and through suppliers like Easy Aerial in Brooklyn.

Do New York City pension funds invest in Elbit Systems?

Yes. Records reviewed by the New York Daily News in December 2025 showed the city's public pension funds held more than $1.5 million in Elbit Systems and had increased the investment, part of roughly $300 million the funds hold across Israeli companies. The largest fund, the New York City Employees' Retirement System, has faced a divestment campaign by rank-and-file city workers since 2024. Divestment decisions sit with the funds' trustees and the city comptroller, which is why public-worker organizing targets those boards.

✊ Take Action

Elbit Systems is part of Break the Chain's audited database of companies complicit in arming Israel through the New York metro area. Help cut the supply chain:

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