Arrow missile maker IAI to pay state over $240 million as defense profits hit record
Germany’s multibillion-dollar missile deals help push the company’s backlog past $30 billion.
On the final day of 2025, the board of directors of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) approved a dividend of approximately NIS 770 million ($242 million) to the state. The amount represents about half of the defense manufacturer’s net profit in 2024, which reached a record $500 million on sales of $6.1 billion.
The government-owned defense company said that this is the “highest dividend that IAI has ever distributed to the state from a single year’s profits.”
Commenting on the decision, IAI CEO Boaz Levy said that “the company’s growth trend was maintained during 2025, against the backdrop of its intensive activity during the war, during which technologies that demonstrate Israel’s superiority were put into action.”
IAI is the developer and manufacturer of the Arrow 3 air-defense system, which served as a central pillar of Israel’s missile defense during operation Rising Lion in June, as well as during the two rounds of fighting with Iran in April and October 2024, when ballistic missiles were launched at Israel.
Last month, Germany’s Bundestag approved a second procurement plan in roughly two years for Arrow 3 missiles manufactured by IAI, with a value of $3.1 billion.
The first deal, signed in late 2023, was valued at approximately $3.5 billion, making it the largest defense export deal in the history of Israel’s defense industries and the first time the Arrow system was sold abroad.
According to estimates within the defense sector, the second missile deal with Germany will significantly expand IAI’s order backlog, which stood at $26.5 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2025, pushing it beyond the $30 billion mark for the first time.
As first reported by Calcalist, other government-owned defense companies have also approved dividend distributions to the state from their 2024 profits.
Rafael approved a dividend of NIS 263 million, while Tomer, which manufactures missile and rocket propulsion systems, approved a dividend of NIS 18.5 million.
This marks the first time Tomer has distributed half of its net profit to the state. In 2022 and 2023, the company distributed 10% and 20%, respectively, under the protections granted to it during its initial years of operation.
Tomer’s activities were previously conducted within Israel Military Industries (IMI) and were spun out following the privatization and sale of IMI to Elbit Systems in 2018. Today, Tomer manufactures engines for IAI’s Arrow and Barak MX missiles, as well as propulsion systems for Elbit’s precision artillery rockets.
