Elbit Teams Up With Anduril as Israel, Ukraine Compete for Defense Deals

Elbit Systems has begun working with Anduril, the fast-growing U.S. defense company, to market its “Ro’em” artillery cannon in an American Army procurement aimed at replacing the M-109 howitzer. In the U.S. version, called “Sigma NG,” the system can fire all 155 mm shells and is mounted on an Oshkosh 10x10 truck with locally available components. Elbit’s Israeli version took about six years before the first unit was recently delivered to the IDF.

The partnership reflects a broader trend in the U.S. defense market, where Israeli companies are increasingly teaming with local firms to gain access to strategic tenders. Anduril, founded in 2017 and focused on autonomous weapons, aircraft, missiles and AI systems, completed a $5 billion funding round in May that valued it at $61 billion, up from a little over $30 billion in June last year. The latest round was described as the largest in defense tech in 2026.

Separately, the U.S. is returning to TNT production for the first time since the 1980s. Because Western countries did not preserve traditional industrial capacity, rebuilding it is now expensive. The U.S. Army will spend $404 million to build a TNT plant in Kentucky, after relying on imports for bombs, shells and grenades. TNT is especially important for 155 mm shells, whose prices have surged because of demand from the Russia-Ukraine war and fighting in the Middle East.

The article says the TNT deal is being executed through Repkon USA, a subsidiary of Turkey’s Repkon, which is expanding its U.S. defense footprint and already has a contract to build an artillery shell plant in Texas. It also says French President Emmanuel Macron has again angered the Israeli defense industry by restricting Israeli companies at the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris, set to open next Monday. The limits, including no national pavilion and a ban on offensive weapons displays, had little financial impact on Israel’s Defense Ministry, but Israeli participation fell from about 74 companies in 2024 to fewer than 40 this year, while Ukrainian exhibitors jumped from 10 to 80.

At the same time, Elbit has signed another major European partnership, this time with Germany’s Diehl, to offer the SkyStriker loitering munition to the German armed forces. If selected, the system would be produced, assembled, integrated and certified locally at Diehl sites. The article also notes a new strategic partnership between Rafael and Reflex to develop a new generation of very-high-resolution satellite constellations, designed for rapid, large-scale production and intelligence gathering from space.