The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) EDGE Group builds its defence supply chain by acquiring controlling stakes in foreign companies and leaving them to operate in place.
The group holds 13 international acquisitions and strategic investments alongside 23 joint ventures (JV), integrates their outputs at the corporate level, and performs weapons integration and final assembly in the UAE through subsidiaries such as Halcon and ADASI.
This differs from the standard route to a defence industry, i.e., indigenization, under which a state pulls design, production, and suppliers inside its own borders over several decades.
EDGE treats ownership – rather than location – as the basis of control.
How EDGE Group Buys Control — From Estonia to Brazil
EDGE is acquiring companies at nearly every tier of the supply chain.
In Europe, it holds a majority stake in Estonia’s Milrem Robotics (unmanned ground vehicles), 52% of Switzerland’s ANAVIA (autonomous helicopters), and 50% of Poland’s FLARIS (light jet platforms).
In Brazil, it holds 50% of SIATT (missile guidance, navigation, and control), 51% of Condor (non-lethal systems), and, as of July 2026, a signed agreement for 100% of AKAER (aerostructures and electro-optics engineering).
In the Middle East, it holds 80% of Jordan’s MARS Robotics (unmanned aircraft engineering) and even minority stakes in Israel’s ThirdEye Systems (electro-optical recognition) and High Lander (drone traffic management).
EDGE is extending the same method to propulsion.
It signed an agreement in May 2026 for a controlling stake in Italy’s CMD, an engine-maker in Atella, and the announced terms contain no plan to relocate production to the UAE. The agreement gives EDGE the technology stack and the engineering team where they already sit.
