Teledyne is the world’s 69th largest arms company, according to SIPRI. Founded in 1960 in California, Teledyne produces sensors and electronics for civilian and defence applications, as well as drones. It made 2024 arms revenues of US$ 2.05 billion, accounting for about 36% of the company’s total revenues.
Teledyne’s business is divided into four segments: digital imaging, instrumentation, engineered systems and aerospace and defence electronics. This last segment, which comprises most of its work with military contractors, accounted for 14% of the company’s total 2024 sales. It employs close to 15,000 employees and has subsidiaries in countries including: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Japan, Mexico, and the UK.
One of its military-oriented subsidiaries, Teledyne FLIR Defense, provides technology and systems to the US government and its allies. It was created when Teledyne acquired the American arms company FLIR in 2021.
Teledyne in the UK
There are 18 registered UK subsidiaries of Teledyne. Teledyne’s UK headquarters, Teledyne UK Ltd, is in Chelmsford, and it has 5 sites in the UK.
Among Teledyne’s UK companies are Teledyne Reynolds in Berkshire (high-voltage interconnect solutions for land, aerospace and space systems), Teledyne CML Composites in Merseyside (aerospace composites manufacturer for aircraft), Teledyne Energetics in Lincolnshire (arming and initiation solutions), and Teledyne Microwave UK in Yorkshire and Teledyne Lab Tech in Wales (RF and microwave technology).
The Royal Air Force is a significant customer of Teledyne in the UK. The RAF uses Teledyne’s AirFASE flight data analysis tool on its Airbus A400M transport craft fleet. Teledyne CML Composites was awarded a 2021 contract with Airbus for the “Life Of Program” supply of composite wing components & assemblies on the A400M.
Unmanned vehicles
Teledyne produces unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) through its Teledyne FLIR Defense business. Among these are the Black Hornet nano-drone, a personalised reconnaissance system for dismounted soldiers. The US army has ordered US$ 300 million of the drones, introducing it in 2018 to its Soldier Borne Sensor program. Over 33,000 Black Hornet drones have already been supplied by Teledyne FLIR to nearly 50 countries, including most recently Germany. Other drone offerings include the SkyRaider and SkyRanger. In September 2025, it revealed its SkyCarrier platform designed to deploy and recover SkyRaider and SkyRanger drones from land vehicles, maritime vessels, or fixed sites. In 2024, Teledyne FLIR introduced its Rogue 1 loitering munition drone, which the US Marine Corps selected to support its Organic Precision Fires-Light (OPF-L) program in a contract worth up to US$ 249 million. Also that year, Teledyne supplied Canada with 800 Skyranger UAVs which the Canadian government intended to supply to the Ukrainian military.
Among its unmanned ground vehicle offerings are the Centaur (debris and mine removal), Kobra 725 (counter-IED and reconnaissance). Teledyne produces unmanned underwater vehicles as well. In 2025, a Teledyne subsidiary agreed to supply the Swedish Armed Forces with GAVIA Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for Mine Counter Measures (MCM) applications. Turkey, Poland and Greece have also acquired the GAVIA.
Sensors and Imaging Systems
Teledyne FLIR Defense produces weapons site systems, including the long-range cooled thermal sniper sight, the ThermoSight HISS-HD. In 2022, it won a US$ 500 million contract to supply thermal imaging systems for the US Army’s Family of Weapons Sights-Individual (FWS-I) programme.
Teledyne also produces long-range, high-resolution lidar sensors capable of day or night operation. In 2024, the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF) received Star SAFIRE 380-HLD multi-spectrum imaging systems from Teledyne FLIR, which it would integrate into its Sikorsky SH-60L helicopter fleet. In 2025, Teledyne partnered with Middle East Task Company (METCO) to deliver US$ 7.8 million worth of lightweight Vehicle Surveillance System (LVSS) light truck-based surveillance systems to a Saudi military agency.
Controversies
Israel and the Palestinian territories
Teledyne is a supplier to Israel’s Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet programme. It makes electronics such as signalling and sensing components and its Teledyne CML Composites business unit makes “Aircraft Structural Components: Complex-geometry glass-fibre packers” for the F-35. As such, it has been targeted for protest action. In 2024, Palestine Action targeted Teledyne’s West Yorkshire facility and in August 2025, protestors targeted the factory of Stemmer Imaging in Surrey, a key supplier to Teledyne.
In 2025, an investigation by the Guardian revealed that an advisor to Teledyne, Richard Dannatt, who is a former head of the British army and a Lord, wrote to two separate Home Office ministers asking them to address the “threat” posed by Palestine Action after its activists targeted a factory in 2022. Palestine Action was added to the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist groups, to widespread outrage, in August 2025.
