Boeing and Israel Military Industries (IMI) have agreed the conditions of a wide-ranging co-operation agreement across military and civil programmes, including subcontracting on fuselage parts and joint development of weapons systems.
IMI president Shlomo Milo confirms that an agreement has been reached to co-operate "across the board". He says a firm deal should be signed in August which will add around $30 million to the Israeli manufacturer's annual sales.
Milo says IMI will manufacture fuselage parts for Boeing's civil and military aircraft as well as supply "fuel tanks and bomb and missile racks for fighters".
The two companies will also jointly develop advanced weapon systems, including the Light Defender stand-off drone and an improved version of the Delilah manoeuvring decoy, with a range of more than 400km (250 miles). Further options exist in space systems, where IMI already manufactures the boosters of the Israeli Shavit satellite launcher.
The deal follows discussions in Israel by Boeing Enterprises, which signed an initial deal to take a 42% stake in test equipment manufacturer Rada Electronics in March. Since then, however, the deal has foundered with Boeing apparently reluctant to sign off on the due diligence process. That has now been delayed for six months, with a target date of 15 January.
Rada, the president of which has already stepped down to ease the deal, will have to prove that there is a sound business case for its concept of building a string of diagnostic centres using its equipment.
Source: Flight International
