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PARIS - In the world of crime, police detectives often say that the best way to solve a case is to "follow the money." That's a good strategy in the defense business, too, and with the American military having the largest checkbook in the world, it is no surprise that many of the world's defense suppliers are beating a path to the door of les États-Unis.
With $5 billion on its order books, Israel's Elbit Systems thinks it can substantially increase that tally by targeting the U.S. defense market even more than it has to date.
"For Elbit, the United States is the biggest and fastest growing market," said Elbit president and CEO Joseph Ackerman, speaking this week at the Salon du Bourget. "The U.S. market will continue to grow, maybe not as dramatic in the past, but it's certainly not declining.
"If you watch the U.S. government, you've seen their recent decisions to eliminate big programs and strengthen spending on electronics, C4I, electronics and intelligence," he said, adding that all those categories mesh with Elbit's competencies.
It is an emphasis on those increasingly important technologies and capabilities that has allowed Elbit to experience 27 percent year-over-year growth in the U.S. for the past five years, according to Ackerman. (Its five-year year-over-year growth in Europe is even higher - 52 percent, Ackerman said, though the amount of total business is much less.)
"We are following the concept of following the money," he said. "The U.S. market is essential to company growth, which is why we will make further investments in the U.S. We will expose all the technology we have in Israel to the U.S. marketplace."
Ackerman laid out Elbit's American strategy: First, continued systems integration of fire-control systems for all mortar variants within the U.S. Army; second, partnering with primes such as General Dynamics, with which it has created a company called UAS Dynamics in Fort Mill, S.C., to focus on unmanned aerial vehicles; and third, acquiring more companies such as Innovative Concepts in McLean, Va., which provides data modems for Army aviation.
Ackerman also spoke about the trends driving the defense market today, besides acquisitions by the U.S. defense establishment. First, customers used to go to the supplier base and ask for a specific product. "Now they express needs and ask for solutions," he said.
Second, "force multiplier" capabilities such as C4ISR (command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) are beginning to dominate the landscape. And third, rapid acquisition and time to market are more important than ever. Said Ackerman: "In the past, we had two to four years to come up with a solution; now, they want it immediately."
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