UK Ministry of Defence Runs Live Exercises With Elbit Systems Days Before Miliband's Settlement Sanctions Speech

More than 300 British soldiers spent three days in September fighting simulated forces in an exercise called Pegasus Athena, run with what Elbit Systems UK called a "key role" in delivering it. The company, the UK subsidiary of Israel's largest weapons manufacturer, described the drill as a "landmark" step for British forces that let troops train "without the need for external assets and... ammunition stockpiles," according to the company's own statement cited by Declassified UK.

The exercise took place in the same window that Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband stood in Parliament on Sept. 8 and announced trade sanctions on Israeli settlements, telling MPs that Britain's finding that the occupation itself is unlawful now aligns with the International Court of Justice's 2024 advisory opinion. That ruling found Israel's occupation illegal and obligated all states, in the court's words, "not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation" it has created.

The contract record

Declassified's investigation, drawn on by Consortium News, documents a procurement relationship that runs far deeper than one training exercise. Since 2021, the Ministry of Defence has awarded Elbit Systems UK a five-year, £102 million contract for a Dismounted Joint Fires Integrator, and a further £14 million in 2023 for Ground Based Surveillance Radar delivered to the Royal Artillery. Elbit also became part of Affinity Flying Training Services Ltd, a joint venture holding a 12-year, £65 million MoD contract to operate Texan T-6C trainer aircraft.

In 2023 the company won additional MoD work to build artillery and mortar training simulators and to design, provide and maintain simulation trainers for Boxer armoured vehicles and Challenger tanks. Its Interim Combined Arms Virtual Simulation system has been used by the British Army since 2022, including in what Elbit described as the largest field army exercise in Europe in a decade, involving 3,500 troops and up to 800 vehicles. Its Joint Fires Synthetic Trainer has logged more than 12,000 hours of training for British and NATO forces, the company says.

Declassified's reporting also states that Israeli technology sits inside one of Britain's key air defence systems and in missiles used by the Royal Air Force, and that the Royal Navy relies on Israeli-made anti-missile systems, though the investigation as cited does not name the specific systems or contracts involved.

The legal question

Genocide scholar Martin Shaw told Declassified the contradiction is direct:

"The government's acceptance that the occupation is illegal means that it should act against Israel itself, not just the settlers it has installed. The ICJ was clear that states must do nothing that provides 'aid or assistance' to Israel in maintaining the occupation... Through the UK's military alliance with Israel and its comprehensive military-industrial cooperation, Labour still appears to be failing in these legal duties, despite Miliband's announcements."

Miliband's sanctions target settlement-linked trade. They do not touch the MoD's procurement relationship with Elbit or the broader defence-industrial ties Declassified has catalogued. Palestine Action activists blockaded Elbit's Instro Precision factory in Sandwich, Kent, in November 2023, part of a longer campaign targeting the company's UK footprint. The Ministry of Defence has not, based on the public record reviewed here, announced any review of its Elbit contracts or the training programs built around them.