Rolls-Royce Holdings
Rolls-Royce Holdings is listed by the BDS Extended List, AFSC Investigate and Who Profits for supplying the Israeli Occupational Forces with tank engines, armored vehicles, and warships through its German subsidiary Rolls-Royce Power Systems and its MTU brand. The corporation earned over $97 million in revenues in Israel in 2024. In June 2024, UN experts named Rolls-Royce Power Systems among the arms manufacturers that must immediately end arms transfers to Israel or risk complicity in international crimes.
Engines for Israel's tanks and armored vehicles
Rolls-Royce's German subsidiary Rolls-Royce Power Systems, formerly MTU Friedrichshafen, developed the engine (MT-883) that powers Israel's Merkava 4 and 5 battle tanks. The Merkava 5 was first used in combat in Israel's 2023 ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Merkava tanks took part in the January 2024 killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab and six of her relatives in Gaza City, in the attacks on al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals, and in the June 2025 killing of 27 Palestinians waiting for food at a distribution point.
The same MT-883 engine powers the Namer armored personnel carrier, which was first deployed in combat in the invasion of northern Gaza in November 2023, having been used in the Israeli invasion of Jenin in the occupied West Bank two months earlier.
Rolls-Royce also powers the Eitan armored fighting vehicle, which entered service in Gaza in October 2023, was used by Israeli occupation forces to infiltrate the civilian al-Shifa Hospital in 2024, and was deployed in the raids on the occupied West Bank villages of Tamun and Tubas in February 2025.
The engines are assembled in the United States rather than Germany so that Israel can receive them as a gift from the US government through the Foreign Military Sales program, while most of the components are manufactured in Germany.
Powering the Israeli Navy
MTU engines power about 80% of Israel's naval vessels, including those that have enforced the illegal naval blockade of Gaza.
Israeli subsidiaries and revenue
Rolls-Royce owns Rolls-Royce Solutions Israel Ltd. in Netanya and holds 50% of Techjet Aerofoils, a jet engine blade manufacturer in the Tefen Industrial Park that describes itself as a Tier One supplier for Rolls-Royce engines. The company's revenues in Israel exceeded $97 million in 2024.
Refusing the UN experts' call
In June 2024, UN experts named Rolls-Royce Power Systems among 11 arms manufacturers that must immediately end arms transfers to Israel, warning that continuing transfers "may be seen as knowingly providing assistance for operations that contravene international human rights and international humanitarian laws." Rolls-Royce Power Systems responded that it "supports the NATO and its allies in providing power solutions for defence purposes" and complies with export control and sanctions laws, without ending any of its contracts with the IOF.
Corruption and bribery
In 2017, Rolls-Royce paid more than $800 million in a global settlement over bribes paid to win export contracts, including £497 million to the UK Serious Fraud Office, $169 million to the US Department of Justice, and $25 million to Brazilian authorities.
Sources:
- AFSC Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide
- AFSC Investigate Rolls-Royce Holdings plc
- Business & Human Rights Resource Centre Rolls Royce Power Systems' response to urgent call by UN Experts to cease the transfer of arms to Israel
- Campaign Against Arms Trade Rolls-Royce
- Globes Israel's 5G Merkava tank proves itself in Gaza
- OCCRP United Kingdom: Rolls-Royce Agrees to Pay US$ 800 Million Bribery Settlement
- Rolls-Royce Solutions Israel Ltd. Rolls-Royce Solutions Israel Ltd.
- Forensic Architecture The Killing of Hind Rajab
- The Guardian Rolls-Royce to pay £671m over bribery claims
- UN States and companies must end arms transfers to Israel immediately or risk responsibility for human rights violations: UN experts
- Who Profits Rolls-Royce