Dubai Airshow: Flagship Al Tariq munition makes a huge impact

It’s the flagship product for the company’s missiles & weapons cluster – one of five groupings, the rest of which also cover platforms & systems, electronic warfare & intelligence, mission support, and cyber defence. 

The Al Tariq is a modular IN/GPS-guided glide bomb kit, originally derived from the South African Denel Umbani precision-guided bomb kit, produced under a joint venture between Denel Dynamics (49%) and Tawazun (51%). 

Tawazun Dynamics became Barij Dynamics in 2018 and, in November 2019, Barij became Al Tariq, when it was consolidated under the EDGE group along with 25 other UAE defence companies.

The Al Tariq guidance and wing kit is designed to fit the 250lb (120kg) Mk 81, 500lb (250kg) Mk 82 and 1,000lb (450kg) Mk 83 bombs, with moving control surfaces and optional pop-out wings. 
The weapon is offered with a GNSS/INS seeker, to which can be added semi-active laser, imaging infra-red or millimetre wave radar options. It can be integrated using MIL STD 1760 databus connections, but can also be wirelessly programmed from the cockpit, allowing it to use a standard dumb bomb pylon.

In service with the UAE Air Force Mirage 2000-9 and F-16E/F for some years (and in considerable numbers), the weapon has now won export orders.

Though EDGE is coy about detailing its export customers, videos released by the Egyptian Air Force earlier this year showed the weapon being carried on Egypt’s Mirage 2000s and F-16C Fighting Falcons.

Egyptian Mirage 2000s were first seen carrying Al Tariq weapons during the Qader 2021 exercise at the beginning of July, while the weapon was shown on the F-16 in a video released to mark air force day celebrations on October 14.

The standard Al Tariq has a range of up to 45km (with a release height of 40,000 ft), but the optional wing kit extends this to more than 120km. It is unclear as to whether bolt-on propulsion options boosting range to 200km are still being offered.