The launch of EDGE Europe a few days before the opening of the Eurosatory 2026 exhibition was a strong sign of the increased interest of the UAE leading defence group in the Old Continent
At the Villepinte exhibition EDR On-Line met Miles D. Chambers, the Senior Vice President of International Business at EDGE, to get an insight on the group strategy for Europe.
“EDGE already has a footprint in Europe with the acquisitions of Milrem Robotics in Estonia, Anavia UAV company in Switzerland, while for several years we worked with Haenel and Merkel in Germany,” he said, adding that investments had also been made in Flaris, a Polish company active in light aviation.
While these investments supported EDGE growth and capabilities, adding certain key technologies, he underlined that these were not aimed mostly at acquiring IP and move them to the Emirates, but rather growing these business locally.
“We have built brand-new production facilities in Estonia for Milrem and in Switzerland for Anavia, so it was a real industrial investment, which also led to a significant growth in the headcount,” Chambers explained, adding that further investments were made in Italy in the small aviation engines field, with the acquisition o 80% of CMD, complementing Powertech, the group entity active in airframes propulsion. “This was a strategic move as it allowed us to secure our supply chain in terms of power packs, particularly for UAVs.”
Besides the acquisition the UAE group formed a series of joint ventures with European major companies, such as Maestral, with Fincantieri of Italy, for ships, and Pulse Nova, with Indra of Spain, for radars, “several other joint ventures being in the process,” Miles Chambers underlined.
Commenting on the announcement of EDGE Europe, the group representative explained that “It is not just a corporate office, as we will also see direct investments in the establishment of a manufacturing and engineering facility in Bordeaux.”
EDGE aims at bringing to Europe some of its products and technologies. “We are looking at various technologies that we can bring from our existing portfolio to be produced in Europe, tailored for the European market, supporting the European ecosystem and supply chain. There is strong interest in long range and deep strike capability, such as our Shadow series of loitering munitions,” Chambers said adding that “We strongly believe in being able to look at the localisation of those products in Europe, through direct investment, but very much through collaboration and partnership.”
EDGE’s increasing presence in Europe is a signal of a real serious intent about not just programmatic interest in Europe, but about a long-term sustained presence to be part of the ecosystem producing in Europe for Europe, using the Paris-based HQ to do that, EDR On-Line was told.
“With the maturity of a broad range of capabilities in EDGE, such as our strong portfolio in autonomous systems, be that UAVs, loitering munitions, or precision-guided weapons, these fit a certain gap that, in our view, is not competing with existing players and can be complementary to European products,” the Senior VP of International Business at EDGE stated. As an example, cooperation with Dassault on the Rafale programme sees the two companies working alongside to integrate EDGE weapon systems on the French platform.
Creating a two-way flow between EDGE and European OEMs is the intention of the UAE group.
“We just signed a partnership agreement with Safran earlier this week, which aims at jointly developing precision-strike weapons. It is not about one level of technology versus the other, but it’s how can we join experience and knowledge in sharing capability and jointly investing in that capability to the benefit of both countries,” Miles Chambers said.
Eurosatory is always a privileged vantage point for getting a feeling of the market. “The establishment of a permanent presence through our office in Paris, has been very warmly received by the market. Today 50% of our turnover comes from the export business: when EDGE was established, in 2019, the export business was around $50 million, in 2025 it was worth US$ 4 billion, and we anticipate that that percentage will continue to grow when we become a predominantly export-based business.”
Of course, the domestic customer will forever continue to be a critically important customer for EDGE, the Emirates technological ecosystem supporting the group in the development of new technologies, but at the same time these must have relevance on a global stage. And this is demonstrated by EDGE broad export base, which covers Africa, the Middle East region, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe.
Autonomy, for land, air and naval platforms, remains a key sector for EDGE, as well as electronic warfare, C-UAS and air defence. “Our chairman quoted 85% of the drones that were launched on the Emirates were intercepted using capabilities from EDGE. This is no longer a conceptual counter-drone capability. It was actively deployed operationally and was used very effectively,” he said.
Sensors and their integration is another area considered key by EDGE, artificial intelligence being used to reduce the operators’ workload. “Today the UAE is the largest investor in AI outside of the United States and China, and being able to layer that into a lot of the applications and the programmes and the capability we offer is a key advantage,” Mr. Chambers underlined.
“Several years ago cyber became the fourth element of military strategic capability. With companies like Beacon Red and Katim, which provide military and government-level cybersecurity solutions, EDGE is also able to protect critical assets like naval vessels, armoured vehicles.
The UAE are investing heavily on manpower, and EDGE is working closely with Academia: “We want to make sure that we are driving a pool of young talent, and we have several programmes to do that. But I think the UAE will always remain a dynamic, multicultural society,” Miles Chambers concluded.
Photos courtesy EDGE and P. Valpolini
