BEIRUT — UAE’s Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), a subsidiary of national defense giant EDGE Group, has subcontracted Singapore’s ST Engineering to design and supply systems for a fleet of vessels for the Kuwaiti navy, according to an announcement.
The statement says that ST Engineering has “secured a six-year sub-contract” to “design and supply platform systems” for the eight Missile Gun Boats headed to Kuwait. The contract is valued at 600 million Singapore dollars (467.6 million USD).
The statement specified that in addition to working on the design and integration, “ST Engineering will build three of the vessels at its Singapore shipyard.”
“This win strengthens ST Engineering’s growing momentum in international defence markets, underscoring the Group’s ability to deliver sophisticated naval platforms and capture rising demand for advanced maritime security solutions in the Middle East,” said Tan Leong Peng, president of the Marine business at ST Engineering, in the statement.
The vessels heading to the Kuwaiti navy are based on the firm’s Fearless-class patrol vessels, “purpose-built for versatility and reliability which is well suited for operations in the Middle East,” the statement said.
The move follows a June 2025 deal between EDGE and the Kuwaiti government for eight Falaj-3 offshore patrol vessels for the navy. At $2.45 billion, EDGE called the contract its largest ever in the Middle East at the time.
In a January interview, CEO of ADSB David Massey told Breaking Defense that the delivery of the first vessel to Kuwait is expected in mid-2027.
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“The UAE leadership is doing its very best to expedite delivery [of Falaj-3] to Kuwait, even that involves the head of the UAE Navy being prepared to accept later delivery of some of their vessels in order to prioritize for Kuwait,” he told Breaking Defense then.
This isn’t the first time an EDGE company has worked with ST Engineering on the vessels. In May 2021 the UAE navy contracted four Falaj-3 offshore patrol vessels in a deal worth AED 3.5 billion (950 million USD), in which EDGE tapped ST Engineering to be the subcontractor.