Elbit Systems reported second quarter revenue of $2,287.1 million this morning, up from $1,972.7 million a year earlier, an increase of 15.9 percent [1]. GAAP net income was $173.6 million, or $3.61 per diluted share against $2.69 in the prior-year quarter, and the company's order backlog reached a record $32.0 billion [1].
The backlog is where the quarter's story lives, and its composition rewards a close read. Approximately 73 percent is attributable to orders outside Israel, which works out to roughly $23.4 billion [1]. Approximately 42 percent, about $13.4 billion, is scheduled to be performed during the remainder of 2026 and 2027; the remaining 58 percent, roughly $18.6 billion, stretches beyond [1]. A defense contractor's backlog is a promise of future revenue, and this one now extends years past any single budget cycle in any single customer country.
One of the named engines behind that book is American border enforcement. The release's recent-events section states: "On July 20, 2026, the Company announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, LLC, has received multiple awards from U.S. Customs and Border Protection totaling over $370 million to enhance U.S. national security, with work to be performed through May 2029" [1]. That is the full extent of the disclosure. The release does not itemize which CBP programs, systems, or contracts the awards cover, so what the $370 million buys, surveillance towers, sensors, integration work, or something else, cannot be determined from the company's own report [1]. What can be determined is who pays: CBP is a component of the Department of Homeland Security, and the awards are US federal procurement dollars, committed through May 2029.
The other headline award is armor. On May 28, the company announced a contract valued at approximately $350 million from an international customer, unnamed in the release, to deliver upgrades for main battle tanks over four years, covering fire control systems, electric gun and turret drive systems, and communication and situational awareness equipment [1].
Proportion keeps the border line honest. The CBP awards and the tank contract together come to roughly $720 million, a little over 2 percent of the $32.0 billion backlog; the CBP money alone is about 1.2 percent. The significance is not that border spending built the book. It is that US border enforcement now appears as a named, multi-year line inside a record foreign defense backlog, with a work horizon, May 2029, that runs through the next presidential term regardless of how enforcement policy moves between now and then.
The cash statement matched the order flow. Operating cash flow for the first half of 2026 was $517.8 million, versus $304.0 million a year earlier, an increase of 70.3 percent [1]. "The strong momentum in the second quarter was sustained, delivering double-digit growth in sales, backlog and earnings per share, improved profitability, and strong cash flow generation," said president and chief executive Bezhalel Machlis [1]. The board declared a dividend of $1.00 per share, payable October 26 [1].
Two limits belong on the record. Every figure here is company-reported, from a single earnings release; no regulator or auditor has passed on the quarterly numbers, which is ordinary for earnings but worth saying when the subject is also a government contractor. Elbit has also appeared in these pages before in a different register: our August 1 coverage of Amnesty International's shipment-data investigation named Elbit Systems among the Israeli recipients of India-sourced arms components. An earnings report and a human rights investigation measure different things. A reader weighing a company that books US border-surveillance revenue on one line and appears in supply-chain investigations on another deserves to see both lines in one place.
