Growing bonhomie with UAE

Prasun K. Sengupta

A series of large contracts worth USD 2.5 billion for weapons made by the EDGE Group, an Emirati military-industrial company Edge worth AED 9.27 billion were announced on the first two days of the IDEX 2023 expo, which was held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) from February 20 to 24.

The Tawazun Council, which manages procurement for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) armed forces, said it had awarded EDGE’s HALCON weapons subsidiary with a 4.7 billion Dirham contract for Desert Sting 25 lightweight guided-bombs, a 2.14 billion Dirham contract for Thunder-P3 bomb guidance kits, and a 1.1 billion Dirham contract for Hunter loitering munitions. EDGE’s ADASI autonomous systems subsidiary was awarded a 1.33 billion Dirham contract for Shadow loitering munitions. Notably, most of these precision-guided munitions (PGM) are also being offered to India’s armed forces through a series of military-industrial collaborative arrangements between the UAE and India.

Caracal, a small arms manufacturing subsidiary of EDGE, signed a partnership licencing agreement with the India-based Icomm to develop a portfolio of locally manufactured small arms for the Indian market. The partnership marks the first trans