Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) unit, Bedek Aviation Group, has signed a 9.5-year $170 million contract with the Ministry of Defense to provide comprehensive and continuous maintenance services to the Israel Air Force (IAF) Heavy Transport Aircraft Wing. Bedek will initially provide the maintenance services both at an IAF base and at the company's facilities. Later, the services will be provided only at the IAF base.
IAI posted $777 million revenue in the third quarter, 14% more than for the corresponding quarter of 2006. Sales in January-September rose 20% over the corresponding period to $2.4 billion.
In a separate development, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today received the first images from IAI-built TechSAR all-weather, high-resolution radar satellite, successfully launched by an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Sriharikota test site on the Bay of Bengal. Olmert told IAI chairman Yair Shamir, "I saw the fine images transmitted by the TecSAR. The flawless operation and quality of the satellite images contribute greatly to the security of the State of Israel."
Officials said that this was the first cooperative satellite launch between Israel and India.
IAI's ground control station received the first signals 80 minutes after launch. The Ministry of Defense and Israeli intelligence agencies will be TechSAR's primary. IAI unit MBT Missiles division was the chief contractor for TechSAR and subsidiary Elta Systems Ltd. designed and built its payload.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 7, 2008
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