Uganda has been working intently with Israel on defence and safety for a number of years, based on newly leaked paperwork. Israel helped Uganda strengthen its drone and surveillance capabilities, they additional revealed.
The paperwork come at a time when Uganda is making ready to ship troops to Gaza as a part of a proposed worldwide “stabilization pressure”. Uganda’s parliament authorized the deployment final month.
On the similar time, leaked inside paperwork, obtained by Drop Site News, present that Israel has been serving to Uganda construct up its navy drone and surveillance capabilities for years. The paperwork are linked to Elbit Programs, a serious Israeli defence firm.
One of many greatest offers was signed in March 2024. The contract was value $52.1 million and lined 4 Hermes 900 drones, together with surveillance gear and floor techniques. The paperwork additionally say that $14.2 million had already been paid to Elbit in 2021.
The gear was meant for Uganda’s Navy Intelligence and its Particular Forces Command, based on the paperwork.
Information present that Uganda’s drone programme began a number of years in the past. An settlement exhibits that Elbit equipped a refurbished Hermes 450 system in 2019. Extra techniques had been equipped in 2020 and 2021. The corporate later agreed to supply newer Hermes 900 drones and improve the fleet’s management and communication techniques.
The paperwork additionally point out SkyStriker, a weapon made by Elbit that may keep within the air whereas searching for a goal after which assault it. One other doc from 2022 stated Elbit was making ready weapons-drop checks in Uganda involving Lizard 3. It’s a system that may assist flip common bombs into extra correct, guided weapons.
Elbit additionally seemed to be serving to Uganda arrange amenities to function its drones. One 2021 contract talked about gear for a drone base the place take-offs and landings may very well be carried out mechanically.
In August 2024, a drone carrying Ugandan markings crashed in jap Congo. A United Nations Group of Consultants report later recognized it as a Hermes 900.
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s navy chief, has been brazenly supporting Israel in current months. He has even stated that Uganda might get entangled if international locations tried to destroy Israel.
We wish the conflict within the Center East to finish now. The world is uninterested in it. However any discuss of destroying or defeating Israel will deliver us into the conflict. On the aspect of Israel!
— Muhoozi Kainerugaba (@mkainerugaba) March 25, 2026
In a social media put up in March, Kainerugaba stated that individuals world wide had been uninterested in the combating within the Center East and needed the conflict to finish. However he additionally warned that if anybody talked about destroying or defeating Israel, Uganda would stand with Israel and will be part of the battle in opposition to Israel’s enemies.
