STI is looking for Defense Production in Israel

10 March, 2019

Simon Best: "Israeli companies are winning a lot of defense deals in the UK, and the Offset Procurement Agreements requires an amount of local production"

Lately it was published that the UK Army was the first costumer of Rafael’s counter unmanned air system Iron Drone, and even put it into operation during the Gatwick airport shutdown event, in December 2018. In October 2018 Elbit Systems UK was awarded an initial contract of approximately US$13 million to supply the UK Army with a Battlefield Management System for both headquarters and tactical units, based on Elbit Systems’ command and control platform.

Earlier this year (2019) Elbit has completed, as the prime contractor, together with QuantaDyn Corporation, the delivery of a mobile Close Air Support and joint fires simulator to the 1st Artillery Brigade of the British Army. Those are just recent examples for the growing scope of defense deals between Israel and the UK. This brings new opportunities for the Electronics Manufacturing Service Providers, that STI from Hampshire, UK, is willing to seize.

“Israeli companies are winning a lot of defense deals in the UK. But in this area, foreign suppliers that have won government or public tenders are required to engage in an offset procurement in the UK, and to do some production in the UK. For us it might be an excellent opportunity,” told Simon Best, the Managing Director of STI, to Techtime. Best believes that Aerospace and Defense markets are in a growing phase: “Defense budgets are growing fast in Britain and the United States. Even the possible Brexilt will not hamper the growth in Britain, maybe vice versa.”

Inside the Eurofighter Typhoon

Simon Best visited Israel for what he calls “fact finding tour”, in order to learn the local market and device a strategy to gain production agreements in future defense deals. “We are certified to AS 9100, AS9100 Rev C, ISO 9001, TS 16949, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, and this may be a good market for us.” STI is a contract electronics design and manufacturing provider for high reliability systems , especially Aerospace, Defence, Security and Energy. It recently won several British Navy tenders and produce 20 different subsystems inside the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Founded in 1989, Surface Technology International is now in a growth phase through mergers and acquisitions: in 2010 it bought a second manufacturing facility in the Philippines, in 2015 STI purchased another manufacturing site in Manchester, UK for the manufacturing of airborne and naval Satcom products. On May 2017, Integrated Micro-Electronics acquired 80% shares of STI. Following this acquisition, STI sais it can provide global capabilities.

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