Zanzottera Technologies S.r.l.

Zanzottera Technologies S.r.l., a single-shareholder company (società a socio unico) registered at Via Italia 105/107, Grandola ed Uniti, Como, designs, develops and produces lightweight piston engines for small and medium unmanned aircraft, and states that it does not supply engines for manned aircraft. Its range runs from the 11-horsepower 101HS to the 82-horsepower 996HS and 996GRX.

The company began in 1996 developing two-stroke fuel-injected engines and in 2000 chose to specialise exclusively in engines for unmanned aerial vehicles. It describes itself as a small but dynamic company supplying 'a global customer base', with engines from 10 to 82 horsepower, ISO 9001:2015 certification from 2017 and the 101H engine from 2020.

Business-data profile classifying the company under ATECO 30.3, manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft and related equipment, with revenue of about EUR 5.4 million in its latest reported year, up 18.3%, and 12 employees. It lists a managing director's post without naming the holder.

Rafael chief executive Yoav Tourgeman, appointed February 2024, puts the order backlog at USD 24.5 billion, roughly half of it export orders, and sets out a two-stage flotation of the company.

Giovani Palestinesi d'Italia, the Palestinian Youth Movement, People's Embargo for Palestine and Weapon Watch, with the European Legal Support Center, identify at least 416 military-related shipments from Italy to Israel since October 2023, confirmed through shipping records, including 214 from Lombardy. They call on workers, people and government across Italy to stop weapons and military components leaving for Israel.

Rafael's board discussed an offer from the American company Ondas for its subsidiary Aeronautics; Rafael stated there were no negotiations on selling Aeronautics or Controp shares. Aeronautics works on classified projects for the Israeli military, including Storm Clouds, which supplies Orbiter 4 drones, known in the military as Nitzoz, to the Air Force and the Intelligence Directorate. In 2023 Stolero exercised an option requiring Rafael to buy his stake for about NIS 487 million.

A report submitted to this site in 2026 states that Zanzottera supplies aerial vehicle engines to Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd in Israel for unmanned drones.

Amnesty names 'the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' among the three largest Israeli arms companies, which it says supply surveillance and armed drones, loitering munitions and border security systems used in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory. It asks states to bar the named companies from public contracts and investors to divest.

The Commission concluded that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, finding that four of the five acts of genocide defined in the Genocide Convention were committed. The finding is confined to Gaza and covers 7 October 2023 to 31 July 2025.

Under Law 185/1990 arms exports must be authorised by UAMA, the arms authorisation unit of Italy's Foreign Ministry. After 7 October 2023 UAMA stopped granting new export authorisations for Israel; licences granted earlier were reviewed case by case, one suspended and one confirmed. Italian exports to Israel in the arms category reached EUR 5.8 million in 2024, on ISTAT data.

The International Court of Justice held Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, and settlements and their associated economic activity contrary to international law, and required states to abstain from dealings that entrench the occupation.

Aeronautics presents an Orbiter-family loitering munition paired with a surveillance drone, and the article states that 'the Israeli Defense Forces are known to use other drones in the Orbiter family'. The loitering munition shown is electric.

The Orbiter 4, 'Israel's newest killer drone', developed by Rafael subsidiary Aeronautics, was used operationally for the first time in Gaza on 8 November 2023, in the record of the American Friends Service Committee. It describes Rafael as a large Israeli state-owned weapons manufacturer making missiles, drones and other weapons for the Israeli military. Page valid as of 1 May 2024.

The International Court of Justice found a real and imminent risk to the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide, and ordered Israel to prevent them. The merits remain pending.

A new drone called Spark, 'based on the Aeronautics Orbiter, is being used in Gaza, which may be its first use in combat', writes Seth J. Frantzman. Nitzoz is Hebrew for spark.

The Israeli military began flying small Nitzoz drones over the Gaza Strip, with the chief of staff's approval, from 8 November 2023, under the Storm Clouds project developed by Rafael and Aeronautics with the Ministry of Defense. The article describes them helping to locate Hamas operatives and supporting detect-and-strike missions for the Air Force, the Intelligence Directorate and Southern Command; a senior Southern Command source calls them a force multiplier. Reported by Amir Bohbot, in Hebrew.

At the Paris Air Show, Aeronautics asked 'its Italian subsidiary Zanzottera, a specialist in engines for UAS' to develop an 11-horsepower dual-ignition engine for the new Orbiter 5, driving a two-blade propeller to a top speed of 70 knots. The article records Rafael's purchase of Aeronautics in 2019 with Avihai Stolero, and states that Rafael would take full control from September 2023.

Zanzottera SRL (100%) is listed among Aeronautics' subsidiaries by the Israeli research centre, with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Avichay Stolero holding 50% each after September 2019. It records Israeli forces outsourcing visual intelligence to Aeronautics since 2002, the military leasing its Pegasus 120 drone fitted with tear gas and skunk water, and Aeronautics drones used against unarmed protesters at the Great March of Return in Gaza in May 2018. Valid until 14 September 2021.

Aeronautics' president and chief executive Moshe Elazar says 'we own Zanzottera in Italy, which develops and produces engines for UAVs, a small company but very important one'. He calls the engine 'one of the main building blocks in a UAV' and names the Zanzottera Z101 used on the Orbiter 4 for its fuel consumption. The article records Aeronautics as acquired by the Rafael group in autumn 2019.

Magal sold its Integration Solutions, or projects, division, including the Yehud facility in Israel, to Aeronautics Ltd, a subsidiary of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, for about USD 35 million in cash, expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

UAV Navigation and Zanzottera will offer drone manufacturers 'a fully integrated engine and autopilot solution'. Tests confirmed that UAV Navigation's Vector autopilot exchanges critical data in both directions with Zanzottera engine control units, so Zanzottera engines can now be controlled by UAV Navigation autopilots.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the Israeli businessman Avihai Stolero completed the acquisition of drone maker Aeronautics Ltd for NIS 850 million, about USD 243.5 million, after Israeli government approval the previous month. Aeronautics announced its delisting from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The Aerostar tactical drone, made by Aeronautics Defence Systems, is powered by a single Zanzottera 498i two-stroke boxer engine producing 28kW. Its listed operators are the Israel Defence Forces, the United States Air Force and the Thai Air Force.