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Elbert uh systems is a global defense
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and aerospace electronics company uh
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about $3 billion uh headquartered in
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Israel. uh is really uh covering the
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entire portfolio of defense and
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aerospace electronics uh all the way
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from uh communications, command control,
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airborne systems, lens systems, UAVs, uh
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electronic warfare and such. It's a very
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diverse business, uh a technology leader
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in many of those areas. Uh my business
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is the US subsidiary and arm of Elbat
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that is headquartered in Fort Worth,
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Texas. Uh we have about 2,000 people,
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2,000 employees in five major
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geographical locations in the US
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including uh New Hampshire, Florida,
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Virginia, Alabama, Texas, and a few
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other smaller facilities. And our
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mission is basically to take the
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technologies that Elbert develops and
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bring them to the US to provide uh
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solutions for critical missions and
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needs. We operate in the US in defense
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in commercial aviation and also business
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nice business in medical
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instruments. The um Elbert Systems is
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pretty unique because if you look at
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many of the uh defense corporations in
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the world, you will see that most of
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their sales are for domestic needs. Most
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of them have uh about 10% or even less
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international sales. Elbert actually has
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the reversed ratio. Elbit's 80% of
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Elbit's sales are done internationally
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outside of Israel and that makes it for
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a unique challenge and structure as a
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global company. So the strategy that the
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company has selected is to be a
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multi-domemestic company that means that
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the company's operating in multiple
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countries opening facilities opening
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domestic capabilities which allows it to
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really grow and and and do this
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international sales. uh uniquely uh US
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is considered by Elbbit as a domestic
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home market and that means that uh about
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50% of the Elbit sales if you look at
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Israel and the US those comprise more
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than 50% of a elbit sales and being
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domestic home market means that we
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invest in infrastructure we invest in
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capabilities we hire more people and we
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also follow the national security
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interest of the United States uh as a as
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a home market player. Uh so that that is
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really the the core strategy of being
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global and
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multi-domemestic. Well, we're looking at
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that. I think I think that that
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definitely everybody is looking ahead at
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uh at uh uh some changes in budgets of
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course, but more than that a lot of
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shifting in priorities for defense uh
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budgets around the world. One of the
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unique things about Elbit is because of
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our global footprint, we find a
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significant business business in
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supporting US industry in growing
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internationally. We are working with
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several of the leading US companies to
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help them penetrate and expand their
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business internationally based on our
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experience and our presence in this
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country. So that's one one of the areas
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we do. We of course are looking at the
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Jason's markets as well. uh the the the
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the I think big challenge is going into
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a market in which you're not as familiar
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with the customers and the needs and the
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trends. Uh we've had some very good
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experiences of dual use technology. We
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intend to continue to do that. Uh,
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interestingly enough, one of my
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businesses here in the US, the medical
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instrument business last year has done
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very well and we see a capability to
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grow that with the increased emphasis on
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health and on on those kind of
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capabilities. In a commercial aviation
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market, we're looking for some
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rebounding of the market in the next few
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years. So that will be hopefully an area
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in which we can grow more. So we're
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looking both at the global capability
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but also from a perspective of some dual
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use and some capability we can leverage
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into medical instruments and commercial
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aviation. Yeah, I think I think the dual
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use um again one of the big challenges I
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think one of the success stories uh that
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Elbbit had in the last few years is
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taking technology that they developed
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for military for helmet mounted displays
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for tracking uh of head movement. pilots
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used that to steer sensors or to steers
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weapons on a tactical fighter. LB took
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the same technology and basically spun
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off a company that was later acquired,
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but it took the same technology for
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medical implementation. And this this is
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about identifying in the body to a great
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accuracy the position, the location, the
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orientation of probes or any medical
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devices. So that's an example. Uh there
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are other areas in which we are looking
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at in the area of satellite
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communications in in other areas to be
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able to leverage uh defense technologies
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into the commercial and of course
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nowadays the big trend is to do exactly
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the other way which is taking commercial
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technologies into the realm of uh of
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military and I think one of the premier
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examples is taking all the effort that
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was done on man machine interface in the
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commercial industry with iPhone and so
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forth and you can see these kind of
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applications showing up in the military
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systems as
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well. I think the uh the biggest
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challenge uh is really to look ahead and
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understand where our customers needs are
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going to be, where the priorities are
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going to be. How are we going to spend
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precious R&D dollars to stay ahead and
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to create to create a value proposition
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for the customers? We're seeing more and
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more of the customers, at least in the
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defense industry, wanting to see
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hardware products developed,
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demonstrated before they're willing to
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make a buy decision. They're less
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willing to go into a longer term
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research and development effort. So we
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have to be very uh capable, very strong
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in anticipating their needs, spending
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R&D to develop the products and hoping
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that it will be the ones that are going
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to meet their future needs and future
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solutions. That that is one of the
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biggest challenges we
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have. Um I think I think from our
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company uh one of the things that's
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pretty unique about us is we're looking
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at uh business models which are
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collaborative in nature. uh we have a
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great uh asset in the fact that uh in
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Israel there's a whole lot of innovation
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a whole lot of new ideas and
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technologies and uh one of the things
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that we have built is a very unique
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business model that allows us to bring
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those innovations to the US customize
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them and adapt them to US needs and we
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do this through a collaborative business
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model through a joint ownership model
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between the folks in the US and the
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folks in Israel and I think as we look
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at the future for the US. I think more
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and more we will rely on collaboration,
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international collaboration and
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innovation that doesn't necessarily come
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from the US, but we as Americans are
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able to leverage it to our advantage. So
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I think that's one of the the core
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things that we think we're good at and
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we see in the future.
