Leaked Documents Suggest Elbit Systems Negotiated Advanced Drone Sales to UAE

Leaked internal documents from Elbit Systems, Israel's largest arms manufacturer, indicate the company was in talks to sell advanced strategic drones and armaments to the United Arab Emirates. The documents, which date from late 2021 to early 2023, were published by the hacker group Handala after being stolen from a private Gmail account of an Elbit official. It remains unclear whether all the mentioned deals were finalized.

According to reports, the UAE sent an urgent request for six Hermes 900 surveillance systems in March 2022, two months after Iran backed Houthi rebels attacked refineries and an airport in Abu Dhabi. Elbit reportedly responded with a proposal pricing each system at 40 million dollars, and the UAE later expressed interest in expanding the order to 15 systems for approximately 1.3 billion dollars. Other leaked materials suggest Elbit pitched the Hermes 650 drone to the UAE in March 2023, a year before its public unveiling. Additionally, a memo indicates that Israel's Defense Ministry gave Elbit approval to sell short range SkyStriker loitering munitions and Hermes 900 drones to the Gulf state.

Elbit Systems stated that it does not comment on business matters relating to its customers and claimed that the leaked materials do not accurately reflect the company's business activities. The Emirati Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment. While Elbit has only publicly acknowledged one deal with the UAE in January 2022 for fueler jet defense systems, a separate 2.3 billion dollar deal for unspecified equipment announced in November has been linked to the UAE by a French intelligence magazine.