By Palestine Chronicle Staff
UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed (Photo illustration: The Palestine Chronicle)
Leaked Elbit documents reveal extensive Israeli arms negotiations with the UAE, including advanced drones, surveillance aircraft and precision weapons.
Key Takeaways
- Leaked internal files show Elbit proposed supplying the UAE with up to 45 Hermes 900 drones in a deal worth approximately $1.3 billion.
- The documents detail Emirati interest in intelligence aircraft, loitering munitions, bunker-busting bombs and precision-guidance kits.
- Israel-UAE military cooperation has deepened since the Abraham Accords, culminating in Iron Dome deployments during the recent war with Iran.
Leaked Internal Documents
Leaked internal documents from Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems have revealed extensive negotiations to supply the United Arab Emirates with advanced drones, intelligence aircraft, electronic-warfare systems and precision weapons, according to an investigation published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The documents offer a rare glimpse into the scale of the largely undisclosed military relationship that has developed between Israel and the UAE since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020.
According to the investigation, the leaked correspondence includes proposals for deals potentially worth billions of dollars, including a planned Emirati fleet of 45 Hermes 900 drones valued at roughly $1.3 billion.
The files also describe Emirati requests for signals-intelligence aircraft, loitering munitions, air-defense systems and technology capable of converting conventional bombs into precision-guided weapons.
The alleged deals were rarely publicly acknowledged, even as Israeli arms manufacturers opened offices, established partnerships with Emirati defense companies and sharply expanded sales to Abraham Accords states.
The relationship reached new levels during the recent US-Israeli war on Iran, when Israel reportedly deployed Iron Dome batteries and Israeli military crews to the UAE.
An Urgent Request after Ansarallah Attack
The documents indicate that the UAE urgently sought Israeli military assistance following a January 17, 2022 attack by Yemen’s Ansarallah movement.
The operation involved ballistic missiles and drones, some of which struck oil facilities and Abu Dhabi International Airport, killing three people.
Two months later, according to the leaked material, Elbit prepared a detailed proposal in response to what was described as an Emirati “urgent operational requirement.”
The initial request involved six Hermes 900 drones, Elbit’s most advanced unmanned aircraft.
The proposed systems were intended to provide the UAE with “an operational solution for maintaining surveillance beyond the country’s borders – detecting missile and drone launches into the country,” as well as supporting internal security operations.
By the end of March 2022, Elbit had prepared an offer for two Hermes 900 intelligence systems, each consisting of three drones and an extensive range of surveillance and electronic-warfare equipment.
The full package included six drones, six electro-optical surveillance payloads, three wide-area surveillance systems, three cellular interception systems, three electronic-warfare systems and three LightSpear systems designed to protect the drones from interception and electronic jamming.
Two ground-control stations were also included.
The offer valued each three-drone system at approximately $90 million, placing the price of the six-aircraft package at around $180 million.
A $1.3 Billion Drone Fleet
The documents show that the initial proposal may have represented only the beginning of a far larger agreement.
According to the correspondence, the UAE sought to expand the purchase from two systems to 15 systems, which would amount to a fleet of 45 Hermes 900 drones.
At the prices quoted in the earlier proposal, a deal of that scale would have been worth approximately $1.3 billion.
The Hermes 900 entered Israeli military service more than a decade ago and is capable of carrying up to 350 kilograms of surveillance, intelligence and other equipment.
Although Israeli authorities have publicly acknowledged that the aircraft can conduct strikes, foreign reports have said it can carry as many as eight air-to-surface missiles.
One of the proposed surveillance systems, known as SkeEye WAPS, consists of 10 electro-optical cameras mounted beneath the drone.
The system allows a single aircraft to monitor a vast area in real time while producing high-resolution imagery.
The leaked documents describe its capacity for “intelligence forensics,” allowing operators to rewind surveillance footage, combine multiple visual angles and trace a person or object back to its point of origin.
Emirati ‘SIGINT Wish List’
Another classified Emirati document included in the leak was titled “SIGINT Wish List.” It reportedly outlined a requirement for four Elbit-manufactured intelligence aircraft.
The requested aircraft would be equipped with systems for electronic-intelligence collection, communications interception, cyber operations, electronic warfare and visual intelligence.
The documents reviewed by Haaretz did not establish whether that sale was ultimately completed.
The leaked files also refer to negotiations involving the SkyStriker loitering munition, which Elbit documentation says is known within the Israeli military as the ‘Red Galloper’.
SkyStriker is designed to loiter above an area before striking a selected target.
A separate presentation described an Emirati project codenamed ‘Yasmin 3’, involving the manufacture of “6,000 kits within three months.”
The exact nature of the kits was not specified.
However, Haaretz noted that Elbit manufactures equipment capable of converting unguided bombs, including the one-ton MPR-2000 bunker-busting bomb, into precision-guided weapons using GPS or laser systems.
Newest Drone Offered before Public Unveiling
The documents also reveal that Elbit offered the UAE its Hermes 650 drone nearly a year before the aircraft was publicly unveiled.
A sales presentation dated March 2023 described the new system and its potential capabilities.
The Hermes 650 can carry a wide range of intelligence, surveillance and electronic-warfare equipment and is expected eventually to replace the older Hermes 450 used by the Israeli army.
The presentation assured Emirati officials that the Hermes 650 could operate alongside Elbit’s SkyStriker and Rafael-owned Aeronautics’ Orbiter drone family.
Haaretz said the reference may indicate that those systems had already been sold to the UAE. The proposal also offered local production of components, including engines, and the integration of systems inside the Emirates.
Such arrangements would support the UAE’s long-term objective of building an independent domestic weapons industry.
Israel Approved Advanced Sales
The leaked correspondence included discussions among some of Elbit’s most senior executives, including Chief Executive Bezhalel Machlis and officials responsible for international marketing, drone systems, strategic affairs and aerospace programs.
A document summarizing a 2021 meeting between Elbit’s chief executive and the head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Bureau indicated that the company had received authorization to sell specific systems to the UAE.
These included a Hermes 900 configured for intelligence collection without strike capabilities and a SkyStriker munition limited to a range of 60 kilometers.
The meeting also addressed the possible sale of MPR-2000 bombs, one-ton munitions designed to penetrate bunkers and fortified structures. The files appear to have originated from the private Gmail account of a senior Elbit executive who used it for company business.
Haaretz said the correspondence revealed weak information-security practices, with sensitive documents sent through the personal accounts of at least two senior company officials instead of Elbit’s internal systems.
The material was later published online by a hacking group reportedly linked to Iranian intelligence. Elbit told Haaretz that it “does not comment on the business matters relating to its customers.”
“The mentioned data does not reflect the firm’s business reality,” the company added.
Record Arms Trade after Abraham Accords
Israeli military sales to Abraham Accords countries have grown rapidly since normalization agreements were signed with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.
According to Haaretz, Israeli weapons exports reached a record $19 billion in 2025. Approximately $3 billion of that total came from sales to Abraham Accords countries.
Since 2021, Israeli military exports to those states have amounted to roughly $9 billion, with the overwhelming majority of purchases made by Morocco and the UAE.
Elbit, Rafael, Israel Aerospace Industries and other Israeli defense companies have opened local offices and established joint ventures with Emirati firms.
Many of the agreements have not been publicly disclosed.
The only UAE contract Elbit publicly announced was a $50 million deal in January 2022 to equip five Emirati aerial-refueling aircraft with Israeli missile-defense systems.
In November, Elbit announced another deal worth $2.3 billion to provide a “strategic solution to an international customer.”
The buyer and the weapons involved were not identified, although a French publication later reported that the UAE was the customer.
Iron Dome and the Iran War
The security relationship expanded further after Israel and the United States launched their war on Iran on February 28.
According to the report, Iran directed much of its retaliatory fire toward the UAE, launching more than 3,000 missiles and drones against the Gulf state.
Flight-tracking data and media reports indicated that Emirati aircraft repeatedly landed in Israel, often late at night.
Axios later reported that Israel had deployed Iron Dome batteries to the UAE together with Israeli army crews.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Israeli security cabinet member Miri Regev confirmed the report.
The Financial Times also reported that Israel transferred a laser-based interception system to the Emirates. A similar Emirati airlift reportedly landed at Israel’s Nevatim Airbase in April 2022.
Several months later, satellite imagery showed an Israel Aerospace Industries Barak air-defense system positioned near Al Dhafra Airbase, south of Abu Dhabi.
Reuters also reported that the UAE had purchased Rafael’s SPYDER air-defense system.
The cooperation has reportedly included secret high-level political contact.
Haaretz said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an undisclosed visit to the UAE at the height of the fighting with Iran.
‘The Emiratis Work Things Out Directly’
A senior American official praised the relationship that has emerged between Israel and the UAE since the Abraham Accords.
“The Emiratis are the only ones who work things out directly with Israel and don’t come to me to solve their problems,” the official told Haaretz.
The remark referred partly to Emirati humanitarian activity in Gaza, including a project to construct a pipeline carrying desalinated water from Egypt into the enclave.
According to the US official, the direct relationship between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv allowed the UAE to carry out projects that other governments or UN agencies could not complete because Israel might classify materials as having possible “dual use.”
Yet the leaked Elbit documents show that the relationship extends far beyond diplomacy or humanitarian coordination.
They describe an increasingly integrated military alliance involving advanced surveillance, air defense, electronic warfare, armed drones and precision-strike systems.
The files provide some of the clearest evidence to date of how the Abraham Accords have evolved into a lucrative and strategically important arms partnership between Israel and the UAE.
(PC, Haaretz)
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