Israel’s Elbit Systems has won a multi-million-dollar contract to supply a mixed fleet of Hermes 900 and 450 unmanned air systems to Colombia.

Elbit had previously disclosed only that the contract, to be fulfilled over the next two years, was with a “Latin American” country. But sources within the Israeli defence establishment confirm the deal with Colombia is a “government-to-government” contract.

This arrangement was imposed by the Israeli ministry of defence after a previous contract was cancelled because of a “power struggle” between Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries.

The contract, which Elbit says is worth “tens millions of dollars”, includes ground stations and a variety of surveillance and communications payloads.