U.S. defense firms debut at Azerbaijan arms fair as Ondas’s Israeli ties emerge

For the first time, U.S. defense companies participated in Azerbaijan’s biennial defense exhibition, ADEX 2026, held in Baku from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. The U.S. debut comes as Washington and Baku seek to expand their defense and security cooperation under a new Strategic Partnership Charter signed in February. Among the American companies attending was Northrop Grumman, which served as the exhibition’s Country Partner Sponsor. Another was Ondas Inc., a U.S.-based military technology company whose rapid expansion into the Israeli defense sector raises questions about the emerging connections between U.S., Israeli and Azerbaijani military industries. Of the U.S. companies making their ADEX debut, Ondas received special mention in Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s official presidential press release, which identified the American drone manufacturer and its subsidiaries American Robotics and Airobotics. A photo from ADEX 2026 featured on the president’s website shows the Falcon-23M Lightning counter-drone system, demonstrated by the Turkish FDI Technology (Falcon Dynamic Systems), which describes itself as a “NATO partner” with outposts in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Portugal. According to the FDI website, the Falcon unit was delivered to Azerbaijan’s Air Defense Forces to “undergo a comprehensive modernization program,” including upgrades to its radar system and command-and-control networks. The system in the photo has a twin-barrel cannon, a radar unit under camouflage netting and a control station with three screens and a joystick. The unit bears the word “AZERBAIJAN,” two official state emblems and logos with the words “BIRD” and “ONDAS (+).” According to Global Defense Insight, the Falcon-23/4M Lightning incorporates radar components made by BIRD Aerosystems, an Israeli defense company that first debuted at ADEX 2018. BIRD was acquired by Ondas in March 2026. These details are not proof of a contract between Ondas and Azerbaijan. However, the appearance of the BIRD and Ondas markings on a Turkish-Azerbaijani system links U.S., Israeli, Turkish and Azerbaijani defense industries. For Ondas, that link is especially notable given its recent history. ADEX 2026 and the U.S. debut ADEX, a biennial exhibition organized by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense Industry and Defense Ministry with the participation of the state-owned Azersilah Defense Industry Holding, has drawn defense contractors and government representatives to Baku since 2014. This year’s sixth ADEX attracted more than 270 defense firms from 30 countries. President Aliyev’s official website noted that “several prestigious companies from the United States are participating in the exhibition for the first time.” Turkey had the largest presence, and 14 countries hosted national pavilions, including Israel, Russia, China and the debuting U.K., led by Lord Coaker, the British minister of state for defense. Aliyev’s office highlighted four Israeli companies (Aerospace Industries, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Uvision Air and Elbit Systems) and four Turkish firms (Baykar, Aselsan, Dearsan and Roketsan). Although ADEX is primarily a venue for defense deals, it also provides a glimpse at the military-industrial relationships surrounding Azerbaijan. The overlapping defense ties among Turkey, Israel and Azerbaijan are particularly relevant to Armenia’s security, given the role Turkish and Israeli military systems have played in Azerbaijan’s offensives against Artsakh and Armenia. The U.S. Embassy in Baku announced the American debut in an X post on Sept. 30, naming Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SIG Sauer, Vantor, Persistent Systems, Motorola, L3Harris, Curtiss-Wright, Space Eyes and Ondas among the participating companies. Space Eyes is backed by Eric Trump, the son of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Reuters. The embassy said its Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires Amy Carlon attended ADEX, “joining American, Azerbaijani, and international partners in exploring new technologies and opportunities for cooperation in the defense and security sectors.” “This year’s ADEX features particularly strong U.S. participation, including American defense companies participating for the first time,” the embassy wrote. “As part of our Strategic Partnership Charter, the United States and Azerbaijan continue to expand our defense and security partnership.” Northrop Grumman’s prominent role as ADEX Country Partner Sponsor alongside Turkey’s Roketsan serving as General Sponsor was noted in the exhibition’s official catalog. “We Will Further Advance Our Relationship With Azerbaijan” was the headline of a full-page message in the ADEX newspaper from Northrop Grumman executive Matthew Isler, a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general. “At ADEX 2026, Northrop Grumman will further advance our relationship with Azerbaijan, building on the signing of the U.S.-Azerbaijan Strategic Partnership Charter,” Isler wrote. “We will continue working together to deliver the advanced capabilities Azerbaijan needs to defend against modern air and missile threats.” Ondas’s rapid expansion into Israeli defense Ondas was founded in 2006 by Stewart Kantor and Menashe Shahar as a wireless networking company called Full Spectrum, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Following a 2018 reverse merger detailed in another filing, the company was renamed Ondas Networks, with Eric Brock becoming the public face of the company. Originally a provider of industrial wireless networks, Ondas ventured into drone technology in 2021 when it acquired American Robotics, and shifted toward defense technology in 2023, when it acquired Israeli drone company Airobotics. Now, Ondas describes itself as a “provider of autonomous systems and private wireless solutions,” operating through business units including Ondas Autonomous Systems and Ondas Networks. Headquartered in Florida, it maintains offices in Massachusetts and Israel, with “customer operations” also in the UAE, India, Singapore and Australia. The company also has ties to the Trump administration through former board member and independent director Joseph Popolo, who was the company’s largest shareholder when he joined the board in 2024. Popolo, a major Republican donor who contributed to Trump’s presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records, became U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands in October 2025, after resigning from Ondas ahead of his diplomatic assignment. Ondas has secured a place in the U.S. military supply chain. Through its U.S.-based subsidiary Mistral, the company holds an order under a multiyear U.S. Army contract with a maximum value of $982 million, supporting the Army's Lethal Unmanned Systems (LUS) program. As of August 2026, orders under the contract totaled more than $240 million, according to an announcement. In January 2026, Ondas raised approximately $1 billion from an undisclosed institutional investor. That month, it announced plans to change its corporate name from Ondas Holdings Inc. to Ondas Inc. and move its headquarters from Massachusetts to West Palm Beach, Florida. Its rebranding also introduced a new logo featuring a red four-pointed star and a dark-blue crescent-like arc — shapes that may evoke the crescent and star motifs on the Azerbaijani and Turkish flags. The company then accelerated its expansion and, in the span of 10 months, acquired at least 15 defense companies, most of them Israeli (see the graphic below). The company has been recruiting senior Israeli defense and intelligence figures. These developments have drawn attention from Israeli media, including CTech, the English-language technology section of Israel's financial daily Calcalist. Ondas has also partnered with Palantir Technologies to establish an artificial intelligence company geared toward governments and businesses involved in “sensitive operations.” The new company will initially focus on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, reported CTech. Ondas’s acquisitions span military drones and robotics, autonomous interceptors, specialized munitions, navigation software and artificial intelligence platforms. For the non-U.S. developers, acquisition by Ondas could open a pathway to tap into U.S. Department of War funding and defense contracts. As U.S. military contractors seek to expand their presence in Azerbaijan, Ondas’s growing Israeli portfolio connects it to a defense industry with longstanding arms ties to Baku. Ondas and the Israeli-Azerbaijani link CTech, which has reported on several of Ondas’s Israeli acquisitions, observed that the company has been “building a senior Israeli defense leadership team.” Former Mossad Director David Barnea joined the company in August as global president. A week after Barnea’s appointment, Ondas announced it had won an Israeli Defense Ministry contract to build the IDF’s next fleet of tactical attack drones as part of its “Digital Bat” program, reported The Jerusalem Post. The co-CEO of Ondas Autonomous Systems is Oshri Lugassy, a former IDF combat engineer who “led critical operations, including during the 2006 Lebanon War,” per the company’s leadership page. Lugassy was also an executive at Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. He is not the only former Rafael executive at Ondas. Former president and CEO Yoav Har-Even and at least five other former Rafael executives have joined the company, according to CTech. In the Azerbaijan context, that history carries weight. In September 2022, after months of Azerbaijani attacks on Artsakh and just days before Azerbaijan launched a major offensive against Armenia, Har-Even, then Rafael’s CEO, met officially with Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Col. Gen. Zakir Hasanov on the sidelines of ADEX 2022 to discuss strengthening Israeli-Azerbaijani military cooperation. The meeting was announced in a press release from Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry. Rafael has been a major Israeli supplier to Azerbaijan for years, providing technology used by the Azerbaijani military against Armenian forces in Artsakh, including Spike anti-tank guided missiles documented by defense analysts at Oryx during the 2020 war. Israeli military contractors have been one of Azerbaijan’s leading weapons suppliers for more than a decade, accounting for nearly 70% of its arms imports between 2016 and 2020, according to SIPRI. The extent of that relationship was detailed in a Haaretz investigation. Ondas’s rapid expansion across the U.S. and Israeli arms industries comes as Congress considers legislation to deepen military cooperation between the two countries. H.R. 8800, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027, passed the House and is awaiting House-Senate negotiations. Section 219, titled the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” would institutionalize technological integration between the U.S. and Israeli defense establishments, including cooperation involving joint ventures, manufacturing, research and development, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Ondas’s concurrent rapid expansion could be positioning it to benefit from closer U.S.-Israeli cooperation on weapons development and production. U.S.-Azerbaijan defense cooperation and Section 907 During his February visit to Azerbaijan, Vice President JD Vance and Aliyev signed the Charter on Strategic Partnership, setting out a broad outline for U.S.-Azerbaijani cooperation. The Charter followed the August 2025 agreement in Washington to establish the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP. Beyond TRIPP and cooperation on AI data centers and various other projects, the Charter states that Washington and Baku “intend to expand the scope of their defense and security cooperation, including defense sales.” The “scope” of future U.S. arms sales to Azerbaijan remains unclear. Leading up to the Charter signing, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that his administration intended to sell “Made in the U.S.A. Defense Equipment, such as body armor and boats, and more, to Azerbaijan.” Across the border in Yerevan, Vance announced what CivilNet called “the first-ever major military technology sale to Armenia”: $11 million worth of V-BAT reconnaissance drones and personnel training. The number of drones Armenia received has not been disclosed. The potential market is significant. The U.S. is the world’s leading military spender, with $954 billion spent in 2025 alone, according to SIPRI. China, the runner-up, spent $336 billion. Azerbaijan and Armenia also devote unusually large shares of their economies to defense: The 2025 list of the top ten countries with the highest military spending as a share of their GDP includes Azerbaijan at 6.5% ($4.94 billion) and Armenia at 6.1% ($1.72 billion). The arrival of U.S. military contractors at ADEX comes amid a growing dispute in Washington over military ties with Azerbaijan. On Oct. 5, more than 100 members of Congress — 26 senators and 75 House members — called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to withhold U.S. military assistance to Baku, citing its imprisonment of Armenian leaders, destruction of Armenian cultural heritage and continued occupation of Armenian territory. The bipartisan, bicameral letter, publicized by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), challenged the Trump administration’s decision to renew a waiver allowing such assistance. The issue partly centers on Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, adopted in 1992, which conditioned U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan on it ending its blockade and military aggression against Armenia and Artsakh. However, Congress created a presidential waiver authority in 2002, and President George W. Bush exercised it that year, allowing his administration to resume certain types of assistance to Baku. A separate restriction on arms exports to both Azerbaijan and Armenia, imposed in 1993, was also lifted in 2002, with the State Department stating that export requests would be reviewed case by case. But lifting the ban did not lead to substantial U.S.-Azerbaijan arms deals. The United States remained a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which mediated the Artsakh conflict. OSCE participating states also maintained a voluntary arms embargo on both sides until the group disbanded in late 2025. Over the years, congressional opposition played a role in blocking specific sales. In 2012, House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-Calif.) helped stop a proposed sale of military helicopter equipment to Azerbaijan. In 2014, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reported on U.S. refusal to sell used military vehicles to Baku, citing the embargo. Successive presidents continued to waive Section 907 after Bush. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the U.S. government provided approximately $164 million in security assistance to Azerbaijan under the Section 907 waiver between 2002 and 2020. Analyst Emil Sanamyan has reported that more than $100 million of that sum was allocated in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, during Trump’s first term. Following Azerbaijan’s 2023 ethnic cleansing in Artsakh, the Senate unanimously passed the Armenian Protection Act to block further military assistance. In 2024, President Joe Biden enforced Section 907’s restrictions for the first time since 2002. Trump reversed course after returning to office, extending the waiver in August 2025 and again in July 2026. Congress has since seen competing proposals over the future of Section 907. In December 2025, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) introduced H.R. 6534, which would repeal the provision. That same month, Armenian Caucus co-chairs Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) introduced the Armenia Security Partnership Act (H.R. 6840). The bill would restrict the president’s waiver authority unless Azerbaijan meets specified conditions, including withdrawing its forces from Armenian territory, releasing Armenian prisoners and recognizing the right of return for Artsakh Armenians. The ANCA backed the measure. Some Washington policy groups have also advocated repealing Section 907. In a May article, fellows at the Atlantic Council, a think tank with a history of pro-Azerbaijan analyses, suggested trading the release of “some Armenian detainees” for repeal of 907 to secure Armenian support. “Congressional Republicans get the president a foreign policy win, while Democrats can tout their role in notching a rare human rights victory; both mollify the ever-active Armenian diaspora by securing the release of Karabakh Armenians,” they wrote. The Atlantic Council fellows, however, may be off target in their aim to “mollify the ever-active Armenian diaspora”: “The corrupt and genocidal Aliyev regime neither needs nor deserves American generosity — especially when so many Americans are facing economic hardship here at home,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian in welcoming the bipartisan letter. The U.S. debut at ADEX comes as Washington seeks to expand defense cooperation with Baku, even as members of Congress and Armenian American advocates press to restrict military assistance to Azerbaijan over its treatment of Armenians and continued occupation of Armenian territory. Washington is also seeking closer integration between the U.S. and Israeli defense establishments. The Ondas and BIRD markings on the Turkish-Azerbaijani counter-drone system offer a concrete example of the defense-industry connections emerging in this environment. Although the markings do not establish a direct contract between Ondas and Azerbaijan, the company's growing Israeli defense operations and recruitment of former Rafael executives tie it to the leadership of a company that supplied weapons to Azerbaijan during its ethnic cleansing campaign in Artsakh. These connections bring into focus the stakes of closer U.S.-Azerbaijani military ties.

U.S. defense firms debut at Azerbaijan arms fair as Ondas’s Israeli ties emerge

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Nanore Barsoumian

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Nanore Barsoumian

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