Edge's guided mission

Formed in November 2019 by the UAE government, this new defence conglomerate took over the bulk of UAE’s defence companies, aiming to become financially independent.

Bringing together these businesses, that in several cases were competing with each other, has allowed the Edge management to strengthen areas that could expand and succeed.

In February 2024, shortly after being appointed as the group’s managing director Hamad Al Marar said: “UAE military represents 90 per cent of Edge’s business with only 10 per cent coming from international markets. That is going to have to change and the ambition is to gain a 60/40 sales split, bringing with it a sizeable transformation in Edge’s fortunes.”

In an announcement in December 2024, the group declared it had secured more than 200 major contracts, with 25 per cent of these representing international agreements in 2023.

By September 2024, it noted, international contracts accounted for 42 per cent of its order intake.

Among its notable achievements, Edge secured a €1bn contract to supply corvette vessels to the Angolan Navy while strategic agreements with the UAE Armed Forces include US$1.62 billion for Desert Sting precision-guided munitions and US$582 million for the Thunder precision guided munitions (PGMs). By September 2024 Edge group-managed companies had achieved an order backlog amounting to US$12.8 billion.

His excellency Faisal Ai Bannai, Edge group chairman said in a statement last December: “In a constantly evolving and highly-competitive international defence landscape it was almost conceivable that a new disruptor from the UAE could, in just five years, rise so rapidly to become a global industry player punching well above its weight across multiple domains.”

Missiles and Weapons

Managing director Hamad Al Marar had previously spent four years in the group’s senior management team, most recently as president of the missiles and weapons cluster. That big responsibility now falls to Saif Al Dahbashi who stepped into his new role on the same day Al Marar became managing director.

On his new objectives, Al Dahbashi said: “Increasing export sales is a top priority to help fund the domestic requirement. We cannot evolve the requirements and advance the development of systems if you don’t have international sales. The government will only support you so much – you need to be sourcing real revenue.”

Al Dahbashi’s told the author at the Bahrain Airshow: “My primary role is to develop the company’s flagship programmes, and others that are currently in development. Ensuring they are on time, on cost and on quality. Some programmes in the development lifecycle are more mature than others – like the Desert Sting series.

The smaller 16kg Desert Sting 16 precision-guided munition is already in production, while the 25kg Desert Sting 25 is still under development, with the focus being on the implementation of some improvements in the software, and to improve the seeker’s accuracy. Our target is to integrate these and all our weapons on to as many platforms as possible.”

Platform integration

Today Edge has expanded its product portfolio from 30 in 2019 to an impressive 201 cutting-edge solutions across air, land, sea and cyber domains – a rapid growth of 550 per cent in just five years.

At IDEX (International Defence Exhibition) in February 2023 we saw the new public face of the new business. Edge showed off the new Hunter unmanned combat air vehicle, that could be integrated with many of its munitions, like the RASH series of low-cost mortar bombs and Desert Sting precision-guided munitions (PGMs).

There was the Air Truck, QX56-50 cargo UAV, but it was the big Juniah jet-powered unmanned combat aerial vehicle model that caught much of the attention.

Precision Guided Munitions

Some of Edge’s PGM programmes are more mature than others, with the Al-Tariq bomb certainly in the latter category. The combat-tested and proven Al Tariq range of PGMs, is a flexible family of bomb kit systems, used on the Mk 81 (250lb), Mk 82 (500lb) and Mk 83 (1,000lb) bombs.

There are three different seeker head options – GNSS (global navigation satellite system)/SAL (semi-active laser), GNSS/IIR (imaging infra-red) and GNSS/INS (inertial navigation system).

Converting these unguided bombs into high-precision, longer-range focused munitions using an array of guidance and propulsion technologies enables Al Tariq to adapt to new priorities as missions evolve.

Five years ago they were upgraded with new Block 2 enhancements, that host improvements like an enhanced navigation system and are fully compliant with US military standard 1760 (MIL-STD-1760), French standard DIGIBUS, and also boast new height-of-burst-sensor (HOBS) capabilities.

The most recent version to evolve is the lower-cost Al Tariq – S (short range) with a stand-off range of 45km with flip-up fins.

As Al Dahbashi’s said: “The Al Tariq kit will always evolve, whether it is a evolution of its performance or an evolution of cost and speed.”

Another family of PGMs in Edge’s portfolio include the Thunder short-range guidance kits that can be integrated on the 250lb Mk 81 (P-31), 500lb Mk-82 (P-32) and 2,000lb Mk 84 (P-4) general purpose bombs utilising inertial guidance augmented by GNSS.

Al Dahbashi wants to provide effective guided munition solutions for platforms and systems all over the world, that’s his dream and as a result is integrating Halcon and Al Tariq weapons onto platforms like the Bayraktar TB2.

With the UAEAF&AD buying 80 Dassault Rafale multi-role fighters, it’s not surprising that the Al Tariq and Halcon weapons will be among its armoury. “As system integrators we have a group of Edge engineers working in France, with Dassault,” he said.

That could bring further Al Tariq sales to Egypt, which already using the weapon on its MiG-29s and Mirage 2000s.

Joint ventures

Edge has established a strong network of 23 joint ventures that are playing a central role in the group’s success. In May 2024, Edge launched a joint venture with Spain’s Indra Sistemas to develop and manufacture radar systems within the UAE and a hugely-significant strategic partnership has flourished with Brazil, marking Edge’s’ expansion in South America.

In September 2023, Edge announced the acquisition of a 50 per cent stake in Brazilian smart weapons and high-tech systems specialist, SIATT.

Al Dahbashi finished: “The main focus of this partnership is to continue development of the initial Mansup anti-ship missile. The target is to deliver Mansup to the Brazilian Navy in late 2025, and we will then use these early building blocks to continue our next-generation development – the extended range.

This collaboration was followed by a broader strategic partnership that positions Edge as a long-term partner to the Brazilian Navy, co-investing in advanced solutions, including UAE-developed anti-jamming technology. Most recently, Edge and the Brazilian Navy agreed to cooperate on anti-drone systems, fostering an even stronger relationship.