Spain cancels third arms deal with Israeli defense company in weeks

Spain announced last week that it would cancel a $207 million deal to purchase the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Litening 5 system, financial newspaper Globes reports, making it the third major contract that the Spanish government has canceled with Israeli arms companies.

The cancellation comes after Madrid approved a total arms embargo on Israel as part of a package of measures aimed at halting what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called “the genocide in Gaza.”

The decree prohibits all exports to Israel of defense material and dual-use products or technologies, and the import of such equipment to Spain.

Rafael describes the Litening advanced targeting pod as being “the world’s most widely used, combat-proven targeting and navigation pod,” which excels at what it does due to its target detection, recognition and identification sensors.

Last month, Rafael signed a  €358 million ($415 million) deal with the German Air Force for advanced targeting technology for fighter aircraft, including 90 Litening 5 targeting pods.

The deal for the Litening 5 system is the third such deal that Spain has reneged on in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, it canceled a contract worth nearly $825 million for the purchase of 12 SILAM rocket launcher systems, derived from the PULS platform made by Israeli firm Elbit Systems.

It also formalized the cancellation of another contract for 168 anti-tank missile launchers, which were to be manufactured under license from an Israeli company.

That contract, valued at $337.5 million, was first reported by the press in June.