The Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems UK has lost its largest-ever British arms contract, worth over £2.1bn, after the Ministry of Defence scrapped its Watchkeeper drone programme with Elbit subsidiary UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS).
In a statement to Parliament on Wednesday, Defence Minister John Healey described the scrapping of the drones as being part of wider cuts to the military – “the retirement of aging equipment,” as he put it.
Healey said the cuts would save the military up to £500 million over five years.
The minister did not mention Israel or Elbit but Watchkeeper was a joint project of Elbit and the French firm Thales.
Elbit, Israel’s largest weapons company, had spent over twenty years on the Watchkeeper programme with partner-firm Thales. Their joint venture, U-TacS, has been subjected to over three years of relentless direct action by Palestine Action, causing significant damage to premises and disruption to their operations.
The government has claimed that the move is part of their decommissioning of outdated models. Yet, the Watchkeeper drone has only been in service for six years, and the MOD asserted in 2022 that the Watchkeeper’s “out-of-service” date was not expected to be reached until 2042.
Disruptive action by Palestine Action activists at the U-TacS site has been ongoing since May 2021, when four activists stormed and occupied the factory – remaining on the roof for six days. In the years since, ceaseless actions and disruption at the site have hamstrung the factory’s operations.
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U-TacS has consistently denied that it sells weapons to the Israeli military.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “Elbit losing its biggest contract signifies the beginning of the end for the Israeli weapons maker’s presence in this country. Direct action undertaken by hundreds of activists has consistently disrupted the operations of Elbit Systems, leading to significant delays in production, as well as damage to weaponry. There’s no doubt that direct action works, and it’s more necessary than ever to deploy effective tactics against the Israeli war machine.”
Meanwhile, the British authorities are continuing their crackdown on the Palestine Action organisation with counter-terrorism police recently raiding and arresting ten more activists in connection with the ongoing targeting of the Israeli weapons manufacturer.
