A US manufacturer of transmissions for multiple Israeli military armored vehicles.
Allison Transmission, headquartered in Indianapolis, is the world’s largest manufacturer of automatic transmission systems for medium/heavy-duty commercial and military vehicles. It has “a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense,” powering its Abrams main battle tank and “substantially all” of the U.S. military’s medium/heavy tactical wheeled vehicles. Allison supplies military vehicles in 120 countries, and its revenue from this work amounted to 6% of its total revenue as of 2024.
The company’s transmissions power multiple tactical vehicles that the U.S. has provided to Israel and that have been used in Israel’s 2023-2025 genocidal war on Gaza. This includes the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT), all made by Oshkosh.
In addition, Allison’s 4800 Specialty Series transmission powers the Israeli Eitan armored fighting vehicle. The Eitan was designed in-house by the Israeli military to replace its old fleet of M-113 armored personnel carriers. The Eitan became operational in 2023 and was quickly integrated into operations inside the occupied Gaza Strip. It was first deployed in the occupied West Bank in February, 2025.
Allison started production of the Eitan transmission in 2021, working as a subcontractor of Rolls Royce, which assembles the vehicle’s power-pack. For following year, Allison boasted “achieving unprecedented growth in the global defense market,” citing new contracts for military vehicles powered by Allison transmissions from seven countries, including Israel.
Multiple older generations of Israeli military heavy armored vehicles used Allison transmissions. This included the first version of the Merkava battle tank, which had an Allison CD850-6BX transmission, before it was replaced by a Renk transmission in subsequent versions. Allison started directly supplying the Israeli military in 1968.