Exclusive: Elbit Systems profiting from doomed drone programme which cost UK taxpayer £1.5 billion.
- MoD splurged £1.5bn on doomed drone programme
- Israel’s largest arms firm now benefitting from that deal
- Dozens of drone components sent from UK to Israel last year
- Those parts should be re-exported but are remaining in Israel
- Airfield in illegally occupied territory likely being used to test the drones
- Revelations suggest UK drone exports to Israel unlawful
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Shipping records obtained by Declassified reveal U-TacS has sent dozens of drone components including Watchkeeper engines to Elbit in Israel over the past 18 months.
Advanced radar systems used by the Watchkeeper have also been exported to Israel by Thales in Crawley.
This information might help to explain why the value of UK arms exports to Israel skyrocketed between October and December 2024, totalling more than the 2020-23 period combined.
Under UK arms export regulations, any Watchkeeper components sent to Israel should have been re-exported to Romania.
Yet they appear to have remained in Israel, with Elbit filing a “force majeure” declaration in its contract with Romania while testing the drones at a “secret airfield” in “northern Israel”.
Open-source information analysed by Declassified now indicates this airfield is located in the Golan Heights, a region of southwest Syria that has been illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.
The UK government acknowledges that Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights is a violation of international law, suggesting the export of Watchkeepers from Britain could be unlawful.
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