TEL AVIV, May 20 (Reuters) - Israel's largest defence

firm Elbit Systems reported higher first-quarter

profit on Tuesday, boosted by sales to Israel's military during

its war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and as

global defence spending rises.

Elbit said it earned $2.57 per diluted share

excluding one-time items in the first quarter of 2025, up from

$1.81 a year earlier.

The results were boosted by a 20% increase in aerospace

sales, largely of precision guided munitions from which revenue

rose 22% to $1.9 billion.

More than 32% of Elbit's revenue came from Israel, where the

country has been fighting Hamas since October 7, 2023. The

company has supplied munitions, drones, guided rocket systems,

reconnaissance capabilities and other systems.

As numerous global conflicts boosted national defence

budgets, Elbit's backlog of orders reached $23.1 billion. Some

66% of the backlog is from outside Israel, while 51% of the

orders are scheduled to be fulfilled during 2025 and 2026.

"Elbit is well positioned to capture and benefit from the

opportunities of increasing defence budgets globally and

particularly in Europe," said CEO Bezhalel Machlis. "We are

continuing to invest in increasing our production capacity and

optimizing our supply chains in order to address our backlog and

the high demand for our products."

Elbit said it would pay a quarterly dividend of 60 cents a

share, the same as in the fourth quarter.