In recent years, the United Arab Emirates has been paying special attention to such modern weapons as unmanned systems, in particular, at the beginning of 2023, the UAE-based defense giant EDGE Group bought out a controlling stake in the Estonian manufacturer of robotic systems Milrem Robotics, and later Abu Dhabi issued orders for dozens of robotic systems from this company. The same is happening in the direction of unmanned aerial vehicles.
In addition, the UAE military is currently focused on the development of maritime robotic systems, primarily in order to “fill the shortage of personnel and gaps in capabilities,” as the publication emphasizes Defense News. For example, according to the Military Balance directory, as of 2024, the navy of this country numbered only 2500 people, which is a really small number.
That is why today the UAE is quite interesting for various global manufacturers of marine robotic platforms, this could be seen at the same defense exhibitions IDEX and NAVDEX, at which, as the publication emphasizes, several different surface drones were presented for the first time.
First of all, we are talking about one of the locally produced platforms, namely the “optionally manned interceptor” (can work with or without a crew) DV10, this is a joint development of companies such as Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), Steer AI, Technology Innovation Institute and EDGE Group. In particular, ADSB recently emphasized that their raft form has advanced autonomy technologies and “is able to move in difficult conditions with incredible accuracy and speed.”
According to open sources, this platform is 10.2 m long and weighs less than three tons. Its speed can reach up to 90 knots (about 160 km/h). It can be armed with various remotely controlled combat modules with weapons with a caliber of 5.56 mm; 7.62 mm and 12.7 mm.
Another platform, which was first presented in the UAE, was already American-made – WAM-V from Ocean Power Technologies, which is also called “a pickup truck in the world of marine drones”, in particular, the company’s CEO Philipp Stratmann emphasized that these weapons are truly universal and in fact WAM-V can be deployed to perform any tasks, including detecting mines, communication centers, underwater or aerial drones.
In total, there are three variants of this platform, the ultra-portable WAM-V 8, as well as the WAM-V 16 and WAM-V 22, which have a corresponding length in feet, the largest version (6.7 meters) was presented at the exhibition in the UAE