Edge Group entities secured some significant unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) orders during the 2023 Dubai Air Show, which ran from 13 to 17 November.
On 16 November it was announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces had ordered 100 Reach-S fixed-wing UAVs for armed surveillance missions. The Reach-S has been developed by Edge business unit Advanced Concepts, while production and delivery of the UAE Armed Forces’ Reach-S order will be overseen by Edge autonomous systems specialist Adasi.
The value of the contract was not disclosed.
Saeed Al Mansoori, senior vice president of Advanced Concepts, was quoted in an Edge press release as saying: ““The development of the Reach-S, one of the first locally made medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles, marks a significant milestone for Edge. Thanks to the dedicated team at Advanced Concepts, we have successfully completed two flight tests and a weapon release campaign for the Reach-S and we are currently gearing up for a long-endurance flight test.”
The Reach-S has a wing span of 12 m, a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 640 kg and a payload capacity of 120 kg. Powered by a gasoline-fuelled 110 hp engine driving a pusher propellor, the Reach-S has a maximum speed of 200 km, a maximum altitude of 19,000 ft (5,791 m) and an endurance of 24 hours.
Also on 16 November it was announced that Adasi had secured an order to supply Garmoosha rotary-wing UAVs to the UAE Ministry of Defence. The contract, which is valued at AED 239 M (EUR 60 M), includes integrated logistics support, training, and spare parts management.
Designed to carry payloads of 120 kg, the Garmoosha has an MTOW of 550 kg, a ceiling of 10,000 ft (3,048 m), a maximum speed of 150 km/h, an endurance of eight hours and a 150 km line-of-sight range.
Additionally, the same day saw six HT-100 rotary-wing UAVs ordered by Edge entity Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) “for integration onto the vessels of one of its major export programmes”. The HT-100, which has an MTOW of 120 kg and an endurance of 250 minutes, is manufactured by Switzerland-based Anavia, in which Edge recently purchased a 52% shareholding.
