Lockheed Martin Corporation is a U.S. defense and aerospace company headquartered in Bethesda, MD. Lockheed Martin has provided the Israeli military with F-16 fighter jets, Longbow Hellfire missiles, and AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopter parts along with associated training and maintenance.
Lockheed Martin Corporation is a U.S. defense and aerospace company headquartered in Bethesda, MD. It was listed as the No. 1 arms manufacturer in the world in 2012. The company made over $45 billion in sales in 2013.
Lockheed Martin has provided the Israeli military with F-16 fighter jets, Longbow Hellfire missiles, and AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopter parts along with associated training and maintenance. It also supplies C-130 and C-130J Hercules transport aircraft, the MLRS mobile surface-to-surface rocket launch system, and the future fighter jet, the F-35.
Apache helicopters and drones equipped with Hellfire missiles are the primary tool used by Israel for strikes against densely populated Palestinian areas and “targeted assassinations.” Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and United Nations commissions have documented Israel's repeated and regular use of these weapons in human rights violations and war crimes committed in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza.
According to the UN’s Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, Hellfire missiles fired from Apache helicopters targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008-9. These attacks were ruled violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. 1394 Palestinian men and women were killed in the Cast Lead attacks, of them 345 minors.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza are ongoing. Aerial strikes against civilian homes by F-16 jets were specifically recorded and described by independent human rights organizations following the 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza known as Protective Edge. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2192 Palestinians were killed during the 50 days of Operation Protective Edge, including numerous whole families. More than 20,000 housing units were destroyed, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless.
In its report on Operaton Protective Edge, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the destruction to both property and civilian life as the result of air strikes, including with Hellfire missiles, could "amount to a violation of the principle of distinction...[and] may also constitute a direct attack against civilian objects or civilians, a war crime under international criminal law." The report also confirmed that Hellfire missiles were used in the killing of at least 51 people, including 30 children. Warplane airstrikes, including those from F-16s, killed at least 225 children according to a report by Defense for Children International.
In April 2014, Lockheed Martin opened an R&D office in Israel.
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