At the International Defence Expo and Conference on Wednesday, Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), an aerospace company in India, and EDGE, the top defence company in the UAE, inked a Memorandum of Understanding (IDEX).
The agreement is inked to investigate potential areas of collaboration, such as the collaborative development of missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).
The use of HAL’s small gas turbine engines on EDGE’s guided missiles, the use of EDGE’s GPS jamming and spoofing devices on HAL’s platforms, and prospects for additional knowledge sharing are among the topics that the two businesses will discuss.
At EDGE and HAL’s state-of-the-art facilities in the UAE and India, the two businesses will also investigate ways to work together on mission computers, training programs, and the use of additive manufacturing of metallic parts.
The agreement was signed at INDEX, which is known as one of the biggest tri-service defense shows in the world with Dubai’s EDGE and India’s HAL.
IDEX-2023 will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from February 20–24.
Yesterday, Sunjay Sudhir, the Indian ambassador to the UAE, stopped by IDEX, the country’s premier defence exposition.
In the ongoing defence exhibition, other businesses have also signed contracts. For instance, the first-ever Transfer of Technology (ToT) in defence products was agreed upon by ICOMM, a group business of Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. (MEIL), and CARACAL, an EDGE entity based in the UAE.
In accordance with the “Made in India” and “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” objectives, ICOMM will domestically produce the whole line of small guns produced by CARACAL for the Indian market.
According to Reuters, the UAE signed defence contracts worth $2.22 billion on February 21 at IDEX, totaling 8.14 billion dirhams.
The largest contract was secured by EDGE, which had a book value of more than $5 billion as of last year, a 4.7 billion dirham contract for the supply of Desert Sting P5 systems to Tawazun Council via its subsidiary Halcon.
A 1.33 billion dirham transaction for its Shadow system was signed by ADASI, another EDGE affiliate.
Clients of EDGE can be found across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
