Vanguard MILITARY

Target: The Vanguard Group, Inc. Research date: 28 October 2026 Domain: Military, defence procurement, weapons systems and associated supply chains Evidence standard: Publicly documented relationships, dated observations and identifiable acting entities.

Direct Defence Contracting & Procurement

Corporate identification and operating model

The Vanguard Group, Inc. is a United States investment management company established in 1975, providing investment funds, advisory services and retirement products to institutional and individual investors. Vanguard reports more than 50 million investors and approximately 20,000 employees worldwide as of its latest published reporting dates.¹

Vanguard states that it is owned by its member funds, which are owned by their shareholders. This structure does not identify a conventional publicly traded parent company or an individual shareholder with a disclosed controlling equity stake in The Vanguard Group, Inc.²

Israeli Ministry of Defence and IDF procurement

No public evidence identified of a direct procurement contract, tender award, framework agreement or memorandum of understanding between The Vanguard Group, Inc. and the Israeli Ministry of Defence, IDF, Israel Prison Service or Israeli Border Police.

A 1 August 2024 Israeli Ministry of Defence announcement confirms that Elbit Systems entered into an approximately $340 million ammunition agreement on 31 July 2024, including plans for a new Israeli manufacturing facility. The acting contractor was Elbit Systems; the government recipient was the Israeli Ministry of Defence. The announcement does not identify Vanguard as a contractual party.³

Defence trade directories

No public evidence identified of The Vanguard Group, Inc. being listed as an Israeli defence supplier or procurement contractor through SIBAT or an equivalent official defence trade directory.

Press releases and defence cooperation

No public evidence identified of a Vanguard announcement describing a joint venture, manufacturing partnership or defence supply agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Defence.

Financial relationships with defence contractors

The UN Special Rapporteur’s 2025 report A/HRC/59/23 identifies Vanguard as a major institutional shareholder in companies associated with Israeli military procurement. Paragraph 75 reports Vanguard positions equivalent to approximately 9.2% of Lockheed Martin and 2.0% of Elbit Systems as of 13 May 2025.⁴

These are reported institutional securities holdings. The report does not establish that Vanguard itself executed the defence contracts of its portfolio companies, manufactured their products or controlled their military operations.⁴

Relevant act records

• Acting entity: The Vanguard Group, Inc., acting through investment-management arrangements; investee: Elbit Systems Ltd.; channel: financial securities ownership reported in an independent UN investigation; source domain: ratical.org, reproducing the UN report; dated observation: 13 May 2025; reported position: 2.0%; status on 28 October 2026: unknown because a current issuer-level position was not independently verified.⁴
• Acting entity: The Vanguard Group, Inc., acting through investment-management arrangements; investee: Lockheed Martin Corporation; channel: financial securities ownership reported in the same UN investigation; source domain: ratical.org; dated observation: 13 May 2025; reported position: 9.2%; status on 28 October 2026: unknown.⁴
• Acting entity: Elbit Systems Ltd.; recipient: Israeli Ministry of Defence; channel: direct defence procurement; source domain: mod.gov.il; earliest confirmed agreement date: 31 July 2024; latest dated observation: 1 August 2024; contract scope: ammunition manufacturing and production capacity; contract completion and present status: unknown. Vanguard is not identified as a contracting party.³

Disclosure verification

A US Securities and Exchange Commission filing index establishes that The Vanguard Group, Inc. filed Form 13F-HR on 29 January 2026 for the reporting period ending 31 December 2025. The filing index establishes the existence of institutional holdings disclosures but does not itself substantiate a particular defence contractor position without examining the accompanying information table.⁵

Dual-Use Products & Tactical Variants

Products and military specifications

Vanguard’s documented business activities concern investment management, investment products and financial advisory services. Its corporate disclosures do not identify a Vanguard-manufactured tactical, ruggedised or military-specification equipment product.¹

No public evidence identified of Vanguard marketing a purpose-built military hardware variant to Israeli security forces.

Investment products versus military equipment

Vanguard provides investment vehicles that can hold securities of companies operating in both civilian and defence markets. Its publicly described fund-management and voting arrangements involve multiple internal and external investment managers operating under fund-specific policies.⁶

This establishes financial investment activity, without identifying a Vanguard-manufactured or Vanguard-supplied military equipment product.⁶

Military software and AI

No public evidence identified of Vanguard designing, licensing or supplying autonomous targeting, fire-control, weapons-guidance or kill-chain software to Israeli military bodies.

The 2025 UN report identifies Vanguard as a substantial institutional investor in Palantir Technologies, reporting approximately 9.1% ownership as of May 2025. This evidence concerns institutional share ownership and does not identify Vanguard as the developer or supplier of Palantir’s software.⁴

Export licences and end-user certificates

No public evidence identified of export licence applications, end-user certificates or export-control decisions specifically concerning Vanguard-manufactured equipment supplied to Israeli military end-users.

Heavy Machinery, Construction & Infrastructure

Equipment in occupied territories

The UN report identifies Vanguard as a significant institutional shareholder in Caterpillar, reporting approximately 9.8% ownership as of May 2025. The report discusses Caterpillar within the broader corporate infrastructure and machinery economy associated with the occupation.⁴

The identified Vanguard relationship is financial ownership. No independently verified record establishes Vanguard itself as a seller, dealer, lessor, transporter or operator of Caterpillar machinery in the occupied Palestinian territory.⁴

Direct and indirect equipment supply

No public evidence identified establishing a Vanguard-operated machinery distribution channel supplying Israeli settlements, military installations, checkpoints or demolition operations.

Construction contracts

No public evidence identified of The Vanguard Group, Inc. holding a construction, engineering, demolition, road-maintenance or military-infrastructure contract within the West Bank, East Jerusalem or occupied Golan Heights.

Settlement-related business databases

A Business & Human Rights Resource Centre report published on 25 September 2026 describes the updated OHCHR settlement-business database, A/HRC/63/20, containing 214 companies from 11 countries. No Vanguard-specific entry was independently established from the accessible database reporting.⁷

Supply Chain Integration with Defence Primes

Investments in identified defence manufacturers

The UN Special Rapporteur identifies Vanguard as an institutional investor in Elbit Systems and Lockheed Martin, reporting respective ownership percentages of approximately 2.0% and 9.2% as of 13 May 2025.⁴

An independent June 2024 investigation summarised by the International Federation for Human Rights identifies Boeing, General Dynamics, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, RTX and Rolls-Royce among major weapons manufacturers supplying weapons or weapons systems to Israel during the examined period.⁸

The FIDH investigation concerns financing relationships across the defence industry. It does not establish Vanguard as a supplier of components to the six named manufacturers.⁸

Component supply

No public evidence identified of Vanguard manufacturing or supplying electronic assemblies, optics, propulsion components, armour materials, guidance systems, communications modules or military-grade structural materials to Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael or other Israeli defence manufacturers.

Joint development

No public evidence identified of Vanguard entering a weapons-development, licensed manufacturing, co-production or defence technology-transfer agreement with an Israeli defence prime.

Corporate investment stewardship and influence

Vanguard states that more than 400 funds worldwide employ approximately two dozen internal and external investment managers for proxy voting, with votes administered according to the applicable fund’s policies.⁹

Vanguard’s Investor Choice programme allows eligible investors to select among proxy voting policies. Vanguard’s July 2026 disclosures describe a programme covering eligible equity index funds and providing participating investors with a choice of voting approaches.¹⁰

Vanguard’s 2025 Proxy Year Voting Report describes stewardship activity for the year ending 30 June 2025. The report states that its stewardship programme does not seek to dictate portfolio-company strategy or operations and does not use investment stewardship to pursue public policy objectives.¹¹

These are statements about Vanguard’s reported governance arrangements. They do not establish the outcome of any particular Israeli defence company’s shareholder vote or determine whether Vanguard exercised influence in relation to a specific military contract.¹¹

Named investment-management entities

Vanguard announced in September 2025 that Glenn Booraem and Carolyn Cross would lead separate investment stewardship teams associated with its reorganised investment management structure beginning in 2026.¹²

Vanguard Capital Management Investment Stewardship began operating in 2026 and is responsible for policies, proxy voting and engagement across designated Vanguard index strategies and other portfolios. No Israeli defence procurement contract involving this entity was identified.¹³

Vanguard Portfolio Management Investment Stewardship also began operating in 2026, covering designated US equity index and quantitative strategies. No Israeli defence procurement contract involving this entity was identified.¹⁴

Vanguard Capital Management LLC (CIK 0002100119) reported holding 759,204 ordinary shares of Israeli defence manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd. (CUSIP M3760D101), valued at $577,278,982 (approximately $577.3 million), as of 30 June 2026. The position is directly confirmed by the information table accompanying its Form 13F-HR, accession 0002100119-26-001527, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 13 August 2026. The filing identifies the securities as ordinary shares, reports investment discretion as “DFND”, and records voting authority as 0 shares sole, 0 shared and 759,204 none. Accordingly, the filing establishes a substantial disclosed investment position but does not establish that Vanguard Capital Management LLC exercised voting authority over these shares.^{15, 16}

Comparison with Vanguard Capital Management LLC’s preceding Form 13F-HR, filed on 8 May 2026 for the quarter ending 31 March 2026, confirms an increase from 713,771 to 759,204 Elbit Systems shares: 45,433 additional shares, or approximately 6.37%. The earlier position was valued at $601,788,895, meaning the reported market value declined by $24,509,913 (approximately 4.07%) despite the increased share count. Both SEC information tables report zero sole voting authority, zero shared voting authority and no voting authority for the full respective positions. These quarterly disclosures establish changes in reported holdings but do not independently establish transaction dates, acquisition prices, the source of additional shares or whether the increase resulted entirely from open-market purchases.^{16, 17, 18}

Logistical Sustainment & Base Services

Military installation services

No public evidence identified of The Vanguard Group, Inc. providing catering, facilities management, transport, telecommunications, fuel deliveries, equipment maintenance or other operational services to Israeli military installations.

Geographic scope

No public evidence identified of Vanguard-operated logistical services at IDF installations in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights or the Negev.

Fuel and energy investments

The UN report identifies Vanguard as a significant institutional shareholder in Chevron, reporting approximately 8.9% ownership as of May 2025. The identified relationship is an investment holding; it does not establish a direct Vanguard fuel-supply contract with the Israeli military.⁴

Shipping and port services

No public evidence identified of Vanguard acting as a shipping agent, freight forwarder, port operator or military-cargo handling contractor for Israeli defence shipments.

Sovereign financing

Paragraph 74 of A/HRC/59/23 reports that Vanguard was among asset managers purchasing Israeli treasury bonds, attributing approximately $546 million in purchases to Vanguard. The report discusses Israeli sovereign borrowing during 2024–2025, including international bond issuances in March 2024 and February 2025.⁴

The acting financial entity is identified as Vanguard; the securities issuer and financing beneficiary is the State of Israel; the channel is sovereign debt investment; the source domain is ratical.org, reproducing the UN report; the earliest and latest individual Vanguard transaction dates are not specified; and the continued holding of the reported securities as of October 2026 has not been independently established.⁴

The report connects Israeli sovereign borrowing to government expenditure, including military expenditure. It does not identify an individual Vanguard bond purchase as a restricted or earmarked payment to a particular IDF unit or weapons programme.⁴

Munitions, Weapons Systems & Strategic Platforms

Lethal weapons manufacturing

No public evidence identified of Vanguard directly manufacturing small arms, artillery, combat drones, armoured vehicles, aircraft, warships or other lethal military platforms.

Munitions production

An Israeli Ministry of Defence announcement dated 1 August 2024 documents an approximately $340 million ammunition procurement agreement with Elbit Systems, including establishment of additional Israeli production capacity.³

The UN report’s May 2025 ownership figures separately identify Vanguard as an institutional investor in Elbit Systems. The two records establish distinct financial-investment and defence-procurement relationships; they do not establish Vanguard as a manufacturer, subcontractor or purchaser under the ammunition agreement.⁴

Strategic military systems

The UN report identifies Vanguard as a major institutional investor in Lockheed Martin. It does not identify Vanguard as a direct contractor responsible for manufacturing or supplying Lockheed Martin weapons platforms to Israel.⁴

Critical components

No public evidence identified of Vanguard manufacturing or supplying fire-control electronics, radar systems, warhead casings, missile-guidance components, propulsion assemblies or weapon-specific software to Israeli defence end-users.

Export Licensing, Regulatory & Legal History

Export licensing

No public evidence identified of a government decision granting, denying, suspending or revoking an arms export licence issued to The Vanguard Group, Inc. for Israeli military end-use.

Sanctions and export-control enforcement

No public evidence identified of an arms-export sanctions enforcement proceeding naming Vanguard as the exporter of military equipment to Israel.

Judicial and regulatory proceedings

No public evidence identified of a judicial ruling establishing that Vanguard directly supplied prohibited weapons or military services to Israeli security bodies.

International regulatory context

The UN Special Rapporteur’s 2025 report explicitly identifies Vanguard in its analysis of financial institutions and discusses institutional investment in companies associated with Israeli military activity and Israeli government financing.⁴

The report’s findings are evidence of published international scrutiny. They should not be represented as a judicial finding of Vanguard’s criminal or civil liability.⁴

Investment governance policy

Vanguard announced on 25 November 2025 that its US business would cease to be a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment, while its European and Australian businesses would remain signatories. Vanguard stated that the decision did not change its global approach to investment management.¹⁹

The announcement does not identify Israeli defence investments as the reason for the change.¹⁹

Temporal assessment

The UN report describes Vanguard’s investment exposure during 2024–2025, including observations after the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 and the International Criminal Court’s November 2024 arrest warrants. The report does not establish that Vanguard made a particular acquisition or disposal decision specifically in response to either event.⁴

Civil Society Scrutiny & Documented Investigations

UN investigation

A/HRC/59/23, presented during the UN Human Rights Council’s 2025 session, identifies institutional asset managers including Vanguard and BlackRock in its examination of the financial infrastructure associated with Israel’s military expenditure and occupation-related economy.⁴

Paragraph 74 attributes approximately $546 million in Israeli treasury-bond purchases to Vanguard. Paragraph 75 identifies Vanguard’s reported stakes in Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Caterpillar and Chevron, with the equity positions reported as of May 2025.⁴

The financial exposure documented in the report is distinct from direct weapons production, direct defence procurement and military operational control.⁴

Specialist civil-society investigations

AFSC Investigate maintains research categories covering settlement-related economic activity, military equipment, checkpoints and other occupation-related business operations. Its published methodology distinguishes companies with demonstrated involvement in particular activities from companies merely conducting ordinary business in Israel.²⁰

No independently verified Vanguard-specific direct military supplier profile was established during this review.

The International Federation for Human Rights published a June 2024 summary of research into European financial institutions financing major weapons companies supplying Israel. The identified defence manufacturers include Boeing, General Dynamics, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, RTX and Rolls-Royce.⁸

Boycott and divestment activity

No public evidence identified establishing a completed Vanguard-specific institutional divestment decision made explicitly because of the firm’s financial exposure to Israeli military contractors.

Corporate response

Vanguard’s 2025 investor communications describe its Investor Choice programme as allowing participants in eligible funds to select voting approaches for their proportionate holdings.²¹

Vanguard’s archived stewardship materials document governance reporting from 2025, including voting and engagement disclosures. These materials do not independently establish an Israel-specific commitment to divest from Elbit Systems or Lockheed Martin.²²

Additional corporate disclosure

Vanguard’s UK corporate information describes the company’s client-owned structure and international investment operations. The UK disclosure explains that the US-domiciled Vanguard funds and ETFs own The Vanguard Group, Inc., with those funds ultimately owned by their investors.²³

Named controlling principals

The following individuals and entities were identified through Vanguard’s corporate leadership disclosures. Each entry distinguishes the documented corporate relationship from the absence of an independently established Israeli military-channel act.²⁴

• Salim Ramji - chief executive officer and director since 2024. Searches examined Elbit, Israeli defence, military donations and defence-sector affiliations. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli military procurement contract, Israeli defence-board appointment or FIDF donation.²⁴
• Mark Loughridge - chairman since 2024 and director since 2012. Searches examined Israeli defence affiliations and military donations. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli military-channel act.²⁴
• Gregory Davis - president, chief investment officer and director. Searches examined Israeli government bonds and defence-sector investment activity. No independently verified personal Israeli military procurement or donation record was established.²⁴
• John Bendl - chief financial officer. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Amma Boateng - managing director, Financial Advisor Services. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Joseph Brennan - chief risk officer. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Kaitlyn Caughlin - head of Enterprise Strategy and Transformation. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Jon Couture - chief human resources officer. Vanguard’s biography records prior service in the US Air Force. No public evidence identified connecting that service to Israeli military procurement.²⁴
• Natalie Lamarque - chief legal officer. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Chris McIsaac - managing director, International and Marketing and Communications. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Joanna Rotenberg - managing director, Personal Wealth. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Nitin Tandon - chief information officer. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Lauren Valente - managing director, Workplace Solutions. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Tara Bunch - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• David Hunt - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Kenneth Jacobs - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Scott Malpass - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• John Murphy - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Lubos Pastor - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Rebecca Patterson - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Sarah Bloom Raskin - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴
• Grant Reid - independent director. No public evidence identified of a personal Israeli defence-sector act.²⁴

The individual entries identify persons appearing in Vanguard’s published governance materials. The absence of an identified act is limited by the available searches and does not establish that each individual has been exhaustively investigated.²⁴

Institutional and ownership attribution

Vanguard’s public ownership description identifies its member funds and their investors as its owners, without naming an individually controlling 10% corporate shareholder. Individual ownership of units in a Vanguard-managed fund should not automatically be treated as ownership of an equivalent proportion of a portfolio company or operational control of that company.²

Charitable matching and military-support organisations

A February 2019 report by the Palestine News Network reproduces findings from an In These Times investigation documenting employer matching-gift contributions from US corporate foundations to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, explaining how companies match eligible charitable donations made by their employees. The report does not establish that Vanguard participated in a particular matching transaction or identify a Vanguard-funded payment.²⁵

No public evidence identified of a verified Vanguard corporate donation to FIDF, an Israeli reservist-support fund or a settlement-related military organisation.