Israel Aerospace Industries and EDGE, an Emirati advanced tech company, signed a deal on Thursday to cooperate on the development of unmanned surface vessels (USVs).
The USVs to be developed by IAI and EDGE will be able to operate remotely, semi-autonomously or completely autonomously. They will offer "unique capabilities in terms of modularity, payload, range, maneuverability and performance," the companies stated.
They would be able to be used for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, mine detection and sweeping, and as a deployment platform for certain types of aircraft. Commercially, it would be able to be customized for oil and gas exploration, among several other capabilities.
In addition, the two defense tech companies signed an MoU to establish a maintenance center for several IAI systems in the United Arab Emirates.
The new maintenance center, which will hold some of IAI's most advanced electro-optics systems, will also look to advance marketing of these systems in the UAE.
The partnership was announced on the final day of the 2021 Dubai Air Show.
"It is an important milestone for EDGE to forge collaborations with leading defense players such as IAI, to strengthen our advanced technology portfolio," said EDGE Group managing director and CEO Faisal Al Bannai.
"We are proud to join hands with EDGE in this endeavor, which is another step toward our growing efforts and partnership in the region," IAI president and CEO Boaz Levy stated.
"Localization and cooperation are central and critical to our UAE strategy’s success."
Reuters contributed to this report.