Missile maker MBDA is looking to collaborate with the UAE on the development of its SmartGlider munition as part of an agreement between France and the Middle Eastern nation.
Missile maker MBDA is looking to collaborate with the UAE on the development of its SmartGlider munition as part of an agreement between France and the Middle Eastern nation.
Leading the effort for the UAE is defence industry enabler Tawazun Economic Council, which, ahead of the show announced that MBDA would open a missile engineering centre in the country.
MBDA announced the development of SmartGlider Light, a 120kg (265lb) glide munition with an 80kg warhead and dual-mode seeker, at the Paris air show in 2017, and promoted it at the Dubai event that same year.
But, says Francois Moussez, military adviser in MBDA’s technical and military operations directorate, the company is hopeful that the UAE could become a partner involved in the SmartGlider effort.
“The key is to make it and develop it with the UAE,” says Moussez. “We are very far in discussions and not so far from a full agreement.”
If finalised, the SmartGlider would be a “co-development” with the UAE.
One possible first application could be on the Emirati air force’s Dassault Mirage 2000-9 fighters
“A minimum” of 12 SmartGliders can be carried on the Mirage 2000-9, says Moussez, “although this will probably be more”; by contrast, the larger Dassault Rafale will be able to carry 18 of the munitions.
However, MBDA intends to make the SmartGlider “integration light”, allowing it to be fitted to any Western-built fighter.
SmartGliders would be launched in “swarms” of six, enabling them to overwhelm ground-based air defences. In future, data links will be added, says Moussez, to create a “co-operative swarm”.
