In the seventh month of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Italy signed contracts with the Israeli company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to purchase two early warning reconnaissance aircraft.

Haaretz reports it with reference to the documents of the Ministry of Defense and the Italian Parliament.

The contract amount was about 550 million dollars. Thus, the total number of reconnaissance aircraft that the Italian Air Force will receive from the Israeli company has increased to four - after the acquisition of two CAEW aircraft announced in 2021.

Israel Aerospace Industries:

IAI's division, ELTA, produces SIGINT aircraft for collecting electronic and communications intelligence information, as well as CAEW aircraft, which serve as an early warning and control system.

In July, IAI announced that it had won more than $200 million to supply special-purpose aircraft to a "European NATO country," without specifying which one.

IAI also serves the defense needs of other NATO member states. In September last year, the Czech government approved the purchase of four Spyder air defense system batteries by 2026 to replace obsolete Soviet-made weapons from the company.