Sales by Israel's four largest defense companies, led by Elbit Systems, topped $8.6 billion in 2016.
Israel was rated in eighth place among the world's leading sellers of weapons systems last year. In 2016, Israel's four leading defense companies - Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT), Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., and Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) - had $8.6 billion in sales to the defense market.
The ranking is based on figures from US weekly "Defense News." The rating of the world's 100 leading defense companies is solely according to their sales to the defense markets, and does not include civilian market sales and revenue.
Elbit Systems was the leading Israeli defense company in defense sales in 2016, although when civilian sales are included, IAI had larger sales. Elbit Systems was ranked 27th in the world in defense sales, while IAI was ranked in 33rd place.
According to Baker Tilly, Elbit Systems' defense sales totaled $3.1 billion in 2016, compared with $2.6 billion for IAI. Rafael rose from 41st place in international rankings for 2015 to 37th place for 2016 with $2.3 billion in sales, up 17%, compared with the preceding year, making it one of the world's fastest growing defense companies.
In contrast to most of the defense companies, Rafael's business is all in the defense industry. IMI is further down the list in 92nd place with $496 million in sales in 2016, compared with 90th place in 2015. .
Rafael was in 28th place in 2010, IAI in 36th place, Rafael in 47th place, and IMI in 97th place.
IAI's ranking is expected tp improve in the current year, following a series of major weapons deals signed in India in recent months, including the sale of Barak 8 missiles. IAI's sales of these systems in India total $2.5 billion. The world leader in defense sales is US company Lockheed Martin, with $43.4 billion in sales in 2016.