"IAI and Elbit win $127 million in new U.S. Navy contracts"

Two U.S. Navy contracts announced on September 25 went to subsidiaries of Israeli defense companies, according to the Pentagon's daily contract disclosures, highlighting the continued role of Israeli-owned firms in the U.S. military's defense supply chain.

The larger award, worth $114 million, went to Stark Aerospace Inc. of Columbus, Mississippi, a wholly owned subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Israel's largest defense contractor. The award is a firm-fixed-price modification exercising options under an existing agreement, first signed in October 2024, for the production of Mark 25 Mod 1 vertical launch canisters.

The canisters are components of the Mark 41 Vertical Launching System, the standardized missile-launching architecture used aboard U.S. Navy destroyers and cruisers, as well as allied warships. The system is used to launch a range of weapons, including air-defense missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Naval Sea Systems Command is overseeing the contract. Work will be performed primarily in Columbus, Mississippi, with additional manufacturing at facilities in Oregon, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Completion is scheduled for February 2030.
The contract is being funded through multiple Navy weapons-procurement budgets spanning several fiscal years, with a portion of the funding set to expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

If all remaining options are exercised, the contract's cumulative value could exceed $300 million.