DSEI 2025: Elbit Systems set to field joint fires systems as it looks to large UK requirements

Elbit Systems UK expects to field D-JFI before the end of the year in a major milestone for the £100 million (US$137 million) programme which will interface with radio communication systems used by the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines.

Various Elbit technologies are integrated in D-JFI, including the Torch-X C2 system, HattoriX fire support system, Coral multi-spectral electro-optic payload and Rattler extended-range laser designator.

The company is also in the UK with the Battlefield Management Application, Joint Fires Mobile Trainer and Joint Fires Synthetic Training programmes for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). This is a heritage the company will leverage in its bid for the Collective Training Transformation Programme (CTTP) for the British Army.

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Elbit Systems UK CEO Martin Faussett said the expectation remained for an “announcement from the [British Army] within the next couple of months, maybe even sooner”.

Valued at more than £1 billion over ten years, CTTP seeks to transform how the army conducts its collective training in the face of increasingly complex warfare scenarios.

“We’re part of Team X and it’s a long, complex competition, lots of detail, very large proposal effort … and we’re confident that we have put in a good bid,” Faussett said.

The MoD and Elbit Systems UK have been tight-lipped about the process, which is believed to pit the Israeli company against Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, but Faussett revealed some details and strategy to Shephard.

“[The team] has a mixture of small and medium enterprises and we are also including Atos Serco in that. It’s a consortium of companies that bring many different themes to the party,” Faussett said.

“One of the things that you have to do when you put these teams together is to make sure you’re not all fighting for the same piece of the action.

“Key to one of the CTTP requirements is the management and the exploitation of data [and] we’ve put in quite an innovative approach to how we feel that we can better use the data that’s generated in training to include a feedback loop.”

Elbit points to local footprint and aims for Watchkeeper

There has been some controversy in the wider media about the involvement of an Israeli company at a time when the country is still at war in Gaza, but Faussett argues that Elbit Systems UK is a local company.

“The Elbit strategy is to have meaningful footprints in the markets that it addresses. We have 600 people [in the UK] and have invested £40 million in the UK over the last five years,” Faussett said.

“We shut a factory in Israel that was making night vision systems and moved it to Kent in England. There, we are producing 300 night vision systems a month, not just for the UK market, but also for export customers.”

The company supplied the Watchkeeper uncrewed aerial system (UAS) to the British Army under a contract awarded two decades ago and work has now begun to replace this capability under Project Corvus.

The company has this requirement firmly in its sights and acknowledges how platforms, the payloads and integration of systems have changed substantially in that time.

“The fleet is like having a golf bag with different clubs,” Faussett said.

“You would have a flexible configuration by installing payloads or having different configurations. Also, you’ve got to protect these things [because] if you don’t protect them, they get shot down.”

Shephard’s DSEI 2025 coverage is sponsored by:

Related Programmes in Defence Insight

Project Corvus [UK]

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

Watchkeeper / Watchkeeper X

Torch-X Mounted

Coral