Friday, 12 March 2021_Israel's major aerospace and aviation manufacturer has announced plans to jointly develop an advanced anti-drone missile system with the United Arab Emirates' state-owned weapons maker EDGE.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) said in a statement Thursday that the companies will work together to build the system in order “to detect, identify, classify, and intercept a broad range of threats.”
IAI said the Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) will include soft kill solutions such as electronic jamming and cyber takeovers, and hard kill capabilities such as guns, missiles, electromagnetics and lasers, as well as advanced command and control.
“The C-UAS is fully autonomous requiring no to limited human” supervision, the major Israeli aerospace company said.
“A series of countermeasures, ranging from jamming to drone destruction, will be offered based on the level of threat and the customer's targeted operating environment,” the statement added.
IAI further asserted that the project would have “wider ranging benefits for the [Middle East and North Africa] region and beyond.”
Boaz Levy, president and CEO of IAI, welcomed the project as “a stepping-stone for further business and strategic alliances between” Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi.
Faisal al-Bannai, CEO and Managing Director of EDGE, said the project is set to strengthen the UAE’s advanced technology portfolio and partnerships in the region, adding that the deal is “in line” with the recently brokered normalization accords.
“We believe that this collaboration will help both companies through the transfer of knowledge and sharing of capabilities,” Bannai said.
UAE sets up $10bn fund to invest in Israel
Moreover, the United Arab Emirates on Thursday announced it had established a $10 billion fund to invest in multiple sectors in Israel.