Elbit Buys Underwater Drone Maker ISE of Canada

Israel’s Elbit Systems has added a Canadian underwater robotics maker to its naval business. The company said on Tuesday that it had completed the acquisition of International Submarine Engineering (ISE), which builds autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely operated vehicles, along with the control systems and robotics that run them.

Elbit did not give a price. It said only that the deal “was completed for a purchase price that is not material to Elbit Systems”, a phrase companies use when a deal is too small to matter to their overall results. For scale, Elbit, which says it employs more than 21,000 people, reported revenue of $2,287.1m for the three months to the end of June and an order backlog of $32.0bn.

Half a century under water

ISE is based in the Vancouver area and was founded in 1974, according to Breaking Defense. Elbit says it has “delivered over 250 underwater vehicles to customers in more than 20 countries worldwide.”

Elbit says the purchase is meant to expand its work in three areas: underwater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; mine countermeasures; and anti-submarine warfare. “ISE’s underwater technologies will further strengthen our position as a global provider of comprehensive, integrated maritime solutions,” said Bezhalel Machlis, Elbit’s president and chief executive.

Adding depth to Seagull

The company already sells the Seagull uncrewed surface vessel, built in 12-metre and 20-metre versions and fitted for mine clearance and anti-submarine work, Breaking Defense reports. Saar Koursh, who runs Elbit Naval Systems, told the publication that ISE’s vehicles complement Seagull and will let Elbit offer navies “a complete multi-domain autonomous ecosystem, integrating UAVs, USVs and AUVs into a single mission framework”. In plainer terms: drones in the air, on the surface and under water, controlled together. “This enables customers to deploy coordinated air, surface and underwater autonomous assets as part of one end-to-end operational solution,” he said.

Elbit’s existing naval line-up already includes uncrewed surface vessels, underwater systems, command-and-control suites, electro-optical and sonar systems, and communications and electronic warfare equipment. Seagull took part in US Central Command’s Digital Horizon event in the Persian Gulf in 2022, Breaking Defense notes.

Koursh said customers could still buy standalone systems. He called the maritime domain “an important growth area” for the company, which in February opened a submarine-components production line in Israel with Germany’s TKMS and in May signed a memorandum with it to explore further naval work.

Underwater drones are a busy field. Australia is preparing its Ghost Shark uncrewed submarines to carry sea mines and strike drones, and the US Navy says it has sent a carrier strike group to sea with an uncrewed surface vessel. Neither Elbit nor Breaking Defense says what ISE will build first under its new owner.