EDGE and Leonardo to form 51/49 defence industrial JV in UAE in 2026 as EDGE signs MoU with Italy's AIAD at Dubai Airshow

At Dubai Airshow 2025, Abu Dhabi’s EDGE and Italy’s Leonardo announced a 51/49 industrial joint venture to design, develop and produce defence systems in the UAE in 2026. EDGE also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Italy’s AIAD to expand bilateral defence‑industrial cooperation.

Discovered 2025-11-19T05:51:24.598024-08:00 | 2025-11-19T05:51:24.598024-08:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

  • Establishes an onshore UAE defence manufacturing JV scheduled for 2026 with a 51% EDGE / 49% Leonardo split, shifting design, production and supplier opportunities into the Gulf and affecting regional sourcing and offsets. See recent moves to localise production in the UAE.

  • Expands Italy–UAE industrial ties: EDGE’s MoU with AIAD plus the Leonardo JV broaden pathways for Italian firms to participate in Gulf defence programmes and joint development work, building on EDGE’s prior Spanish JV talks with Indra.

  • Reinforces EDGE’s strategy to scale domestic capacity through localisation and advanced manufacturing, which will influence procurement, industrial partnerships and supplier competition across the region; this follows EDGE’s push to invest in robotics and automation to industrialise production.

Reported By

english.defensearabia.com broadcastprome.com satelliteprome.com euro-sd.com news.defcros.com indiastrategic.in
Sources Tracked
22
First Seen
2025-11-19T05:51:24.598024-08:00
Latest Update
2025-11-25T09:05:50.004574-08:00
Coverage
Defense

Sources

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