The United States is the leading export destination for Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), with annual transactions reaching billions of dollars. To expand its activities in the country, IAI has established a state-of-the-art visitors' center and showroom in its Washington D.C. offices, located near the Pentagon.
The center, intended for U.S. military and government officials, features advanced three-dimensional digital displays for aerospace industry systems. The U.S. accounts for about $1 billion of IAI's $6 billion in annual sales (16%).
According to IAI, the goal of the innovative visitors' center is "to deepen connections and ties with the company's local partners: government officials, the military, security and local companies, and to enable them to examine aerospace solutions through innovative technologies, including virtual reality."
The first quarter of 2024 was the most profitable in IAI's history, with a net profit of $135 million and orders totaling $19 billion, a 48% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Of all sales, 66% are exported, with significant growth in missile system sales. The Arrow air defense system was operationally deployed for the first time during the war and was not included in the first quarter results.
"The U.S. is a central destination for us, and we want to expand our operations there," said Amir Geva, executive vice president of North American Affairs at IAI. "IAI has an advantage with customers; our products have proven real-time operational capability on the battlefield, demonstrated during the ongoing war."
The new center was inaugurated over the weekend in the presence of Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, IDF Attaché to the U.S. Major General Hidai Zilberman, Director of the Defense Ministry mission to the U.S. Mishel Ben Baruch, Geva himself and Head of the IAI Employees Union Yair Katz.