“This edition has been nothing short of exceptional,” Maj. Gen. Staff Pilot Faris Khalaf Al Mazrouei, chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee, which "enables our nation to cultivate and expand our defense infrastructure and technological systems, using them to ensure security and peace across the Mideast."
When asked what the US and other allies can do to better support SAMI with its military expansion, CEO of SAMI said the strategy is to keep working with the best to build the know-how, grow together in the Kingdom and deliver customers' requirements.
"As the work progressed, we were able to digitize the time-consuming process of inspecting aircraft manually and delivered a real-world solution that drives significant time and cost savings as a result," Hala Alzargani, with Lockheed Martin, explained.
This comes in light of a relatively new Emirati-Chinese strategy to work on long-term development and research projects for unmanned systems. Directly in front of UAE's EDGE Group stand, was the China-Emirates Science and Technology innovation laboratory (CEST), a joint project between UAE's International Golden Group and Norinco.
"What made Rheinmetall sign with us? This shows that we have the expertise, right infrastructure, test labs and development support to secure such big deals," Saeed Al Mansoori, CEO of Halkon tells Breaking Defense.
While the UAE government was silent on the Biden Administration's pause on arms sales, social media reaction was harsh.
"Selling is no longer the expectation of our customer, but instead working together locally to share technology and engage in a journey where we will sale to the export market," Patrice Hajjar, MBDA's Export Vice President for Mideast tells Breaking Defense.
UPDATED: Adds Comment Of Former Israeli Aerospace CEO ABU DHABI: UAE-based Paramount Group Ltd. ADGM has opened offices in Israel, the company announced at IDEX today. Back in September 2020, a joint peace deal was signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the United States – known also as the Abraham Accords Peace […]
"This is a very important step that demonstrates a precedent," Khaled Al Zaabi, chief commercial officer at Nimr, told me. "We've never had such industrial military collaboration (in the region) so this definitely cements us as a major global player."
On opening day, the UAE armed forces signed 19 defense contracts, with the larger part going to domestic companies. “Worth $1.37 billion, 22% of the deals were signed with seven international firms while 78% went to 12 local companies,” Staff Brig. Gen. Mohammed Al Hassani, official spokesman for IDEX and NAVDEX, said in a press briefing.
Rebuilding relationships with partners and allies is a core goal of the new U.S. administration. A robust program of foreign military sales (FMS) and direct commercial sales (DCS) can strengthen ties abroad while empowering countries to both defend themselves and contribute to collective security efforts.