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Halcon, a unit of UAE’s state-owned defence conglomerate EDGE, has won a 3.2 billion dirhams ($880 million) contract from the UAE Armed Forces to develop a range of precision guided munitions, in the latest move by the oil rich Gulf country to localize the manufacture of arms and cut expensive imports.
Halcon will make the Thunder range of aerial munitions and the Desert Sting, a light weight guided weapon which can be deployed on aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a statement from EDGE on Monday.
Lahab, also a company within the EDGE group, is charged with filling the Desert Sting warhead, which is manufactured in the Halcon production facilities at Tawazun Industrial Park, in Abu Dhabi.
On Sunday, another unit of EDGE, MRO service provider GAL won a $2.9 billion contract from the UAE Air Force and Air Defence (AFAD).
EDGE, which was created in 2019 from the merger of more than 25 smaller companies, was last year among the top 25 global arms companies ranked by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It was placed at number 22 and accounted for 1.3 per cent of total arms sales of the top 25, SIPRI said.
(Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)
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