non governmental defense electronics company in Israel and increasing Elbit Systems' value which later in 2004, enabled Elron to sell its shares in Elbit Systems for approximately $200 million. Following the merger with El-Op, Michael Federmann became the largest shareholder in the combined group. Growth by acquisition Following the merger with El-Op, Michael Federmann and CEO Joseph Ackerman led an aggressive growth by acquisitions strategy. The company acquired companies, including: Elisra Tadiran Communications Shiron Satellite Communications BVR Systems Assets of Israel Military Industries’ Aircraft Systems Division Innovative Concepts, Inc. Mikal Ltd (the company initially purchased 19% of the firm, and later agreed to acquire Mikal's 100% holdings in Soltam Systems and Saymar and the 87.85% portion of ITL held by Mikal, in exchange Mikal's owners received the 19% of Mikal that Elbit had purchased) Elbit subsequently announced a cash tender offer for the 12.15% remainder of ITL held by the public. Since 2014 In October 2014, Elbit Systems won a $12.7 million contract for the supply and provision of Apache Aviator Integrated Helmets for the US Army helicopter fleet. The contract would be delivered over a two-year period. On March 22, 2018, Elbit Systems and Universal Avionics announced today that Elbit "is in the process of completing the acquisition of the privately owned U.S. company Universal Avionics Systems Corporation [UASC] through an asset acquisition agreement." The deal is expected to close “in the coming weeks.” In the year of 2019, Elbit Systems purchased the night vision business of Harris Corp. (which had earlier acquired Exelis Inc., previously of ITT Inc.) for $350 million when Harris merged with L3. In April 2019, Elbit Systems announced that it had partnered with DA-Group to produce and advertise its anti-jamming devices for global navigation satellite systems. In August 2019, Elbit Systems won an IMOD contract to install the Iron Fist active protection system on the IDF's new Eitan AFV and the IDF's fleet of armored D9 bulldozers. In April 2021, the Australian Army directed that Elbit's battlefield management system be withdrawn from use by 15 May. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that this action was taken due to concerns about the system's security. An Australian Financial Review columnist stated that the security problems comprised "a “backdoor” security vulnerability reportedly uncovered by the Australian Signals Directorate". The Australian Defence Magazine also reported that the system had failed two security milestones during 2020. Elbit denied that