The American agency "Bloomberg" said that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has contracted to sell its first home-made air defense missile for the German security company, Rheinmetall.
According to the agency, the "Halcon" unit of the UAE-owned EDGE Group designed the "Sky Knight" missile system to provide early warning signals and deal with threats from aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and missiles.
According to the agency, this comes within the framework of the UAE's plans to expand the local production and export of military technology, as that missile system will be part of the defense system "Skynex" of the German company "Rheinmetall".
The UEA’s government bets on increasing exports of arms and military hardware over the next period to harvest more revenues of hard currency.
The US agency reports that the UAE has pledged to localize military industries and exports, in an effort to persify its economy and reduce its dependence on foreign companies.
Last year, the Abu Dhabi-owned company, EDGE, accounted for 1.3% of global arms sales and was ranked 22nd out of the world's 25 largest companies, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Bloomberg quoted Faisal Al-Bannai, CEO of EDGE, which specializes in autonomous technologies, smart missiles, and electronic warfare, as saying that he expects sales to grow by up to 15% in 2021, surpassing the $ 5 billion thresholds it achieved last year.
Al-Bannai stressed that although electronic warfare systems have only had a limited presence in the EDGE portfolio at present, the company plans to become a global player by innovating advanced products in the next two years.
"The goal is not to meet basic solutions, but to provide truly advanced solutions," Al-Bannai said.
Abu Dhabi established EDGE in November 2019 and included 25 companies under its umbrella, making it one of the largest defense groups in the Middle East.
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