Despite decades of Arab
boycotts and pressure on countries to not deal
with Israel, military exports from Israel continue
to grow. In the last year Israeli firms sold $1.8
billion worth of weapons to the Americas (mostly
the United States, but a third of that went to
South America), $1.6 billion to European
customers, and $200 million to African nations.
About half those sales are for anti-aircraft
systems. Israel has a wide range of anti-aircraft
and anti-missile systems, many of them using
successful Israeli air-to-air missile designs for
ground based systems. Israeli air defense
technology has proved itself in combat, is
famous for its reliability and technical
excellence, and is priced to sell. Israel is also a
major exporter of military space satellites, night
vision and surveillance gear, and all manner of
military communications equipment. Israel is
also second only to the U.S. as a UAV exporter
and was first to develop a lot of key UAV
technology that the U.S. built on. Israel has also
pioneered the development of add-on armor for
combat and non-combat vehicles. Israel is also
one of the premier developers of electronic
warfare equipment (for aircraft and ground
vehicles).


Female Israeli Soldier

Israel also exports warships, warplane
upgrades, and all manner of technical service.
Because of all this Israeli military exports last
year were once again over $7 billion. Four years
ago Israel became one of the top four arms
exporters on the planet, shipping $7.2 billion
worth of military equipment. The year before
Israel had exported $6.9 billion. The U.S. is the
largest exporter, followed by Russia and
Germany. Israel is holding on to the number four
despite being much smaller than the top three
(the U.S. has a population of 310 million, Russia
142 million, and Germany 82 million people,
compared to 7.8 million in Israel). Israel defense
exports account for about three percent of their
GDP, compared to .7 percent in Russia and even
less in the United States and Germany.
Half the weapons exported worldwide last year
came from the United States (mostly) and
Russia. European nations have long occupied
the next three slots (Germany, France, and
Britain). But lately German and Israeli exports
have been growing. The other big exporters are
Spain, China, the Netherlands, and Italy.


Israeli exercise room

These
top ten exporters accounted for over 90 percent
of the exports. The major importers are Middle
Eastern Arab nations, India, South Korea, China,
and (until recently) Greece.
Israel and Germany have been gaining more
sales because of reliability and quality. Israel has
a major advantage in that many of its weapons
and military equipment have proved their worth
in combat. Often subject to arms embargoes,
Israel learned to design and build a lot of its own
weapons and equipment. With a highly
educated and motivated workforce, Israeli gear
was often world class, while also cheaper and
more reliable (and often combat proven) than
similar stuff coming from the United States and
Europe.


Israeli Marines



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