Five years since its formation as the United Arab Emirates’ defence industry accelerator, EDGE has grown into a company with annual revenues of $5 billion, more than 14,000 employees, activities in 90-plus countries, and sky-high ambitions.
“It’s not that we do miracles here – we work as hard as anyone,” EDGE chief executive Hamad Al Marar told FlightGlobal ahead of the company’s participation in the 17-21 February IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi.
EDGE is showcasing its diverse portfolio of more than 200 products and technologies, including 46 new offerings, from 35 operating units and subsidiaries. This follows its high volume of activity in pursuing acquisitions and partnering agreements throughout its existence.
“This is by far our most advanced display to date, showcasing not only next-generation solutions but the critical technologies that power them,” Al Marar says.
“Any route to growth requires you to diversify your offering, provide innovative solutions, address fast delivery and be attentive to your potential partners and clients,” he says.
“Through the acquisitions that we have been engaged in, we have always seen them as an accelerator to our offering – a very good jump-start toward the solutions we would like to build on. You pick up where others had reached, and that just made sense.”
The company’s exhibit for the first time features the vertical take-off and landing HT-750 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – a 10m (32ft 8in)-long design optimised for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) duties.
An innovative, interchangeable fuselage pod design means the HT-750 also will be able to carry up to 750kg (1,650lb) of cargo, or four troops.
The UAE Ministry of Defence (MoD) in late 2023 ordered a combined 200 examples of the HT-750 and smaller HT-100, after EDGE acquired a majority stake in Swiss developer Anavia.
Al Marar says the programme is on track, with first deliveries to take place during 2025. Also at the show, the company announced a dedicated naval version of the HT-100, with “autonomous deck landing capabilities, sealed electronic compartments and anti-corrosion paint”.
It also has launched the short take-off and landing Sinyar LAR3P medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV, with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 2,200kg and 18h endurance. An armed ISR model named Jeer has a MTOW of 600kg, including a 100kg payload, with its endurance cited as up to 15h.
JENIAH ADVANCES
Meanwhile, Al Marar tells FlightGlobal that work on the company’s ‘loyal wingman’-type Jeniah is advancing as planned.
“The [UAE] MoD is with us on this journey, operationally, technically supporting us, with us as industry having the best minds to work with and the best partners,” he says.
“We have a very good relationship also with France, which means they will contribute to its success – the same will apply for the US,” he reveals.
“All the elements for this programme to succeed are there. We are developing a highly sophisticated system – I would even call it a nice step towards a fighter. The programme is on track and we are hitting the milestones. We are looking at flights in 2026 to prove designs and concepts.”
Asked whether the UAE could in time have an appetite to pursue its own fighter development, he says: “I don’t see it as necessary. What is far more important are the capabilities you develop, the people you retain and the technology you can contribute and export, that comes out of such programmes.”
Examples would include navigation, flight control, electronic warfare, cyber, communications and swarming capabilities: “everything that goes in it that makes it worthwhile: We see that as the best potential.”
Today, EDGE employs talent attracted from 95 countries, as well as its home nationals. “This is unheard of in defence entities,” says Al Marar, describing the company as “one of the most unique, diverse groups in terms of demography”.
NATIONAL ASSET
“The UAE industry is 33 years old: it did not start with EDGE,” he notes. “In critical domains today in EDGE, our design authorities are UAE nationals, and I have more patent holders as UAE nationals than I have expats.
“The people who work for us are working for us because of this [national] mandate – they want to do this,” Al Marar says. “We do not differentiate on religion or skin colour – we evaluate the intellectual might, and that is a big thing.
“We tend to push the envelope in everything that we do, and put in our maximum effort to succeed.
“We need to stand proud and present the country in the best way possible,” he says of its IDEX attendance – and also that confirmed for the Dubai air show in November. He points to the importance of both events in attracting a large number of international delegations, and notes that they have “many potential prospects for business and partnership”.
In other recent developments, the company on 12 February announced the formation of engine unit Powertech, which is initially working on engines for the UAV domain.
“Powertech will host design authority and be the custodian of the strategy and the roadmap” for further propulsion developments in the UAE, he notes.
“[New] engine initiatives around the world are very limited, and extremely limited with their success rates,” he says. “Engine design is complicated, requires a huge infrastructure, and a legacy in the country for you to be successful.”
At IDEX, the company is showing its P145i piston engine: a 1.8 litre, six-stroke design developed in conjunction with a local hobbyist-sector specialist. “This is about us engaging the ecosystem and the local industry and seeing how we can grow together,” he says.
Powertech also has performed the in-house development of a new micro-jet engine. “We have been successful in starting our engine, and that’s on the [test] bench,” he notes.
Powertech is, meanwhile, already exploring the potential for partnerships in the future development of a larger jet engine.
Also ahead of the show, EDGE announced the completion of a significant expansion to its XRange training, test and evaluation facility, including the addition of a ‘drone training village’.
A second, 1,200m-long runway has been completed, adding to the site’s original 3,800m-long surface, while two 800m-long emergency runways now “boost recovery capabilities, ensuring safe extraction of UAS during in-flight contingencies while keeping both runways accessible for other customers”, it says.
Users also can now access a 100km x 25km block of NOTAM-enabled airspace west of Abu Al Abyad Island, for operations up to 10,000ft.
“These enhancements allow our clients to expedite their product development process and accelerate the delivery of their solutions to market,” says Haitham Awinat, chief executive of EDGE’s Remaya unit.
In terms of its overall scale, EDGE’s operating performance in 2024 closely mirrored its figures from the previous year, with around $2.3 billion in sales and revenues totalling $5 billion.
Future growth is already assured, with Al Marar noting that many of the contracts recently secured by the company will only start contributing to its revenue figures in another 18 months to three years’ time.
