Maintaining an EDGE

In the ancient Chinese treatise The Art of War, Sun Tzu identified the importance of intelligence to achieving military superiority over foes. When it comes to current conflicts and threats, the observations of the general and strategist are no less relevant than they were 2,500 years ago.

Rapid developments in technology – from AI to radars and advanced sensors on surveillance drones and satellites – are making it easier for those charged with protecting a nation’s interests and safety to make sense of an enemy’s capabilities and intentions, and, if necessary, act on that knowledge.

EDGE plays a key role in delivering those capabilities to customers around the world. “We are focused on getting the right information at the right time to the decisionmaker,” says Hamad Al Marar, managing director and CEO of the Abu Dhabi-headquartered defence house, which celebrated its sixth anniversary this year.

Today, risks to national security and interests may not come only from conventional armed forces, but from insurgents, drug smugglers, illegal immigrants, or saboteurs intent on doing damage to airports, IT networks, gas pipelines, or other essential infrastructure.

“The nature of modern conflict is changing,” says Al Marar. “We are seeing increasing instances of cross-border smuggling and incursions. You just need to look at what effect low-cost swarming armed drones can do, or how just one individual with a drone can close an airport.”

Obtaining the right equipment to detect and respond to – and ideally deter – an ever-widening spectrum of dangers, at an affordable price, is the objective of almost every government in the world as they strive to stay one step ahead of resourceful adversaries andasymmetric threats.

EDGE was formed in November 2019, as the result of the consolidation of various military and security industrial assets within Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Since then, through rapid organic growth and a series of overseas acquisitions and partnerships, it has expanded to become one of the world’s biggest defence and security companies, with $5 billion in revenues and 17,000 employees.

With over 35 businesses across five clusters – Platforms & Systems, Missiles & Weapons, Space & Cyber Technologies, Technologies, Industrialisation, and Homeland Security – its capabilities range from ammunition to uncrewed air systems and surveillance payloads for satellites to short- and long-range missiles.

However, Al Marar insists that to ensure domestic defence capabilities for the UAE and give it a lead in export markets, EDGE does not have to do everything itself. “We don’t need to design our own fighter, for instance,” he says. “In terms of sovereignty we need to dominate where it is important, and those areas include air defence and intelligence.”

EDGE has acquired or initiated joint ventures or partnerships with a series of foreign companies, both as a way of expanding its own capabilities or accessing an overseas market through technology transfer and industrial investment.

WORLDWIDE GROWTH

In recent years, it has taken significant or majority stakes in Estonian firm MILREM ROBOTICS, FLARIS, a Polish manufacturer of personal jets, and Switzerland’s ANAVIA, a developer of unmanned rotorcraft. In Brazil, its portfolio now includes controlling shares in smart weapons manufacturer SIATT and CONDOR, a specialist in non-lethal technologies.

“These collaborations have several advantages for us,” says Al Marar.

“They open the door for our systems to be used as part of another system, as well as giving us access to innovation.”While EDGE can take the decision to invest in in-house capabilities, buying into an existing business often “saves us effort and risk”.

EDGE’s expansion of its industrial footprint outside the UAE has also helped it this year pass the significant milestone of achieving more than half its revenues from overseas markets – this year, the proportion is likely to be 53%.

Securing contracts with the likes of Brazil means EDGE’s systems are now being demonstrated in very different environments. “We have proven surveillance technology on the UAE border and the Brazilian border,” says Al Marar. “It means that we are scalable.”

Elsewhere, EDGE has been investing in in-house capabilities. Two of the most significant are the launch earlier this year of its own propulsion unit, POWERTECH, and the opening of XRANGE, the GCC region’s first dedicated product testing ground, on an island off the Abu Dhabi coast, in 2023.

The establishment of POWERTECH, in Abu Dhabi’s Tawazun Industrial Park, was driven by EDGE’s need to secure a reliable supply of piston and jet engines for its own portfolio of missiles and uncrewed air systems, although the company will also compete on the open market. Volume production is due to begin next year.

“This is very strategic and important for us, and our own consumption represents a big demand,” says Al Marar, who maintains that long delivery schedules for third-party propulsion systems prompted the move. “The question for us was ‘Are we in this market or not?’ If we are, we must do it.”

Meanwhile, although it will also be available to third-party customers, establishing XRANGE means EDGE can instantly assess its products without having to buy slots at an overseas facility. The 350sq km island has its own secure airspace and includes runways, missile firing ranges, and even a recently abandoned village and beach for exercises in urban warfare and amphibious landing.

“We can now test our assets without waiting in queues for weeks or even months,” says Al Marar. “We identify and go back and make fixes instantly, and that takes you far in terms of readiness and time to market.”

Cutting lead times in this way plays into EDGE’s claim that it wants to be seen as effective, affordable and nimble. “We are fast to market, but not recklessly so,” says Al Marar.

“Our aim is to reduce bureaucracy and to be agile. On the production floors, people are quick to show you challenges and concerns. Their feedback results in things changing. A lot of our ideas come from our people.”

SWIFT ACTION

Al Marar, who assumed his role in February 2024 after four years as part of the group’s senior management team, continues: “We are able to respond fast and at the right quality and price, and when a country is neutral like the UAE, we are able to address politics, readiness, and economics.”

Although the launch of EDGE as the UAE’s sovereign defence group came with much fanfare, the country had an industrial heritage in missiles, ammunition, and land systems long before 2019, pioneering the use of uncrewed air systems, both as an operator and – through its ADASI unit – a designer and manufacturer.

“We were an early adopter of drones as long ago as the early 2000s for the surveillance of oil fields and pipelines as well as our borders, so this has always been a driver for us,” says Al Marar, who previously led EDGE’s Missiles & Weapons cluster.

The creation of EDGE allowed the UAE to exploit the synergies of bringing all its diverse competences under one roof with a single research and development and investment strategy, as well as a powerful umbrella brand for the international market – as exemplified by its prominent presence at the Dubai Airshow and other defence and technology fairs around the world.

The next frontier for EDGE is space – as part of a wider UAE objective to become a player in everything from planetary exploration and satellites to manned spaceflight. EDGE’s priority, as part of that national mandate, will be to put “eyes in the sky” in terms of sensors and other payloads on observation satellites.

“Space is all about data,” says Al Marar. “We need real time awareness of what is happening on Earth, that ability to see, whether that is navigating and operating our assets, securely locating our forces, monitoring the weather, or helping us respond to disasters. For us, space is the future.”

While EDGE is a state-supported entity, Al Marar insists it gets no special favours from the domestic customer. “Yes, the UAE government buys from us as the national company, but we must be competitive even at home, and this makes us competitive abroad,” he says.

Al Marar maintains EDGE’s growing reputation has led to a string of technology companies from around the world approaching his team keen to discuss potential partnerships. “People can see us gaining traction,” he says. “And they want to be part of our success.”

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