Israel Aerospace Industries moving production to Mississippi
. The production lines are being moved to group company Stark Aerospace, located in Starkville, Mississippi
By Ora Coren Tags: Israel newsThe Israel Aerospace Industries is moving certain production lines from Israel to the United States. The production lines are being moved to group company Stark Aerospace, located in Starkville, Mississippi.
Stark is technically a subsidiary of IAI International, which is the main U.S. subsidiary of the Israeli firm.
Yesterday IAI cut the ribbon, as it were, on its new Stark plant to manufacture and assemble drones (small pilotless planes). Stark will also be making the electronic and electro-optic systems used by the drones. IAI commented, however, that none of the workers engaged in building drones in Israel will be fired. They will simply build drones for other countries. Brazil placed a roughly $300 million order just last week.
One reason for the move is that many Western countries, and this includes the U.S. prefer to buy armaments and other defense gear from local companies. Therefore, to increase sales outside Israel, Israel's defense companies have to set up subsidiaries in target markets, rather than expand local manufacturing.
IAI set up Stark in 2006 to drum up business in America. The following year inaugurated its first production outfit, which makes Hunter unmanned vehicles that it sells through Northrop Grumman. In fact, the U.S. armed forces have been using Hunter drones since the early 1990s.
Altogether IAI is investing about $25 million in the Stark production facilities, where it has built laboratories, manufacturing and systems integration units and production lines.
Stark has another plant in Columbus, Ohio that provides manufacturing, assembly and maintenance services for electro-optic plug-in optronic payload (POP) made by IAI for Shadow drones.
IAI chairman Yair Shamir said yesterday that the company understands the importance of working closely with its clients, to make sure that the solutions meet the needs.
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"many Western countries, and this includes the U.S. prefer to buy armaments and other defense gear from local companies" So what non-western countries will Israel be selling to? and relocate to the US and fire your local Israeli employees, maybe not yet but they will if the buyer says "local companies only". The truth is if they could they would have them made in China or anywhere else labor is cheap. Is there anything good about the arms industry other than vast profits for a few wealthy people?
You'll find less than 10,000 Jews here, probably five in Starkville. Wish you'd have come closer to Oxford, but we welcome investment in our state wherever we can get it. Thank you for investing here.
Considering how some of the talkbackers and Israel bashers make comments about how the Jewish State extorts billions from the United States this item says quite the opposite. In a time when production jobs are scarce, outsourced to China and other places where it doesn't cost as much to make, seems that Israeli manufacturers, like others are buying into the American labor market, providing employment to US citizens. IAI is not the only one, perhaps, so . . . for a nation that is "down there" on the list of industrialized states" in the world, we are not doing that badly in helping to shore up the economy of the United States, eh?