Israel's defense exports broke all-time record in 2022 and amounted to $12.5 billion

Israel's defense exports broke the all-time record in 2022 and amounted to approximately 12.5 billion dollars, approximately 1.1 billion dollars more than the previous record from 2021 which amounted to approximately 11.4 billion dollars, according to data from the Department of Defense Exports of the Ministry of Defense.
Last year, defense exports were affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is an accelerator for the expansion of procurement budgets and equipment programs in Europe and other regions of the world, in addition to the continued increase in defense budgets all over the world and the friction between the superpowers.
Last year about a quarter of all exports of the defense industries were from the category of drones (pilotless aircraft) and drones of various sizes. About 20% of all exports were of missiles, rockets and air defense systems; 13% of radar systems and electronic warfare; 10% of observation and optronics means; 6% of intelligence, information and cyber systems.
When broken down by geographic regions, stability is evident in the volume of Israeli defense exports to North America, and it remains within its range from recent years, between 1.4 and 1.6 billion dollars. This is a partial figure, which is based on the numbers of the Israeli defense industries, but does not include the volumes of transactions made last year by their subsidiaries registered in the USA, so that in practice the volumes of exports to North America are larger.
There was a significant jump in Europe, where the sales volume of the defense industries amounted to approximately 3.67 billion dollars compared to sales of 2.95 billion in 2021 after deducting an unusual "exogenous" deal that in the same year tilted the volume of system exports to the continent by approximately 1.6 billion dollars due to a project to build a house Book a flight in Greece.
A significant jump occurred in defense exports to the countries of the "Abraham Agreement" and it amounted to about 3 billion dollars, compared to defense exports amounting to about 850 million dollars in 2021. The Ministry of Defense does not specify the names of the countries to which weapon systems were sold, according to estimates most of the transactions were made in the United Arab Emirates and Morocco where, according to foreign publications, the Aerospace Industry sold systems of advanced defense missiles of the Barak MX type.
About a third of all defense transactions in 2022 were transactions between governments (G2G) which are characterized by guarantees of states for their existence, shortening schedules and bureaucratic processes for equipping combat systems. The data also shows that half of the contracts signed last year were "mega deals", the scope of each deal being over 100 million dollars.
"This is a jump of about 65% in 5 years and the demand for the products of Israeli industries has intensified in the past year, with one of the manifestations of this being the sharp jump in transactions between governments," said the head of the Defense Export Division Brigadier General (ret.) Yair Coles upon presenting the latest export data to the minister Security Yoav Galant and the director general of the office Eyal Zamir. He added that "the analysis of the mix of defense exports shows that it is a healthy and robust export industry due to its extensive distribution across a large number of product categories."
Last year, the Israeli companies benefited from what is known as "the defense establishment avoids estimates on the scope of defense exports during this year, which can only be summarized towards the middle of 2024. However, it is evident that the war between Russia and Ukraine is still far from the end point, and the last word has not yet been said in the tensions in the China Sea region and in the East The Middle East and these will continue to influence the defense spending of many countries in a way that will maintain a high and tough demand for weapons, and it is even possible that in 2023 another Israeli record in this field will be broken.
This, when on the agenda is the Arrow 3 missile deal of the IA in Germany and the planned scope of about 4 billion dollars.
The Bundestag in Germany today approved an advance payment of approximately 600 million euros to the Israel Defense Forces to enable it to prepare for the production of the Arrow 3 missiles. The deal itself, whose value is estimated at 4 billion euros, is expected to be the largest arms deal in the country's history - and will be signed according to estimates only towards the end of the year When it is signed, it will be the largest security deal in Israel's history and it will also be the first time that Israel exports the anti-missile missile system. Germany's interest in this system rose dramatically following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
At the end of the discussion in which the transfer of the advance was approved, Chancellor Olaf Schultz told reporters that he believes the US will soon give its final approval to the deal.