UAE agrees $6bn in military equipment contracts

Supplied/Idex 2025

• Abu Dhabi Idex exhibition
• Contracts with US plus others
• 25% of deals went to UAE businesses

The UAE signed contracts worth more than AED23 billion ($6.3 billion) for military equipment and defence this week, wrapping up the Middle East’s largest defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi. 

It also further expanded its supplier base beyond its traditional US partners and encouraged local manufacturing.

Though no contracts were signed with Israel – with which the UAE has had peace accords since 2020 – Israeli defence companies were amongst the exhibitors looking to sell their wares at the bi-annual International Defence Exhibition (Idex). 

American companies, such as Lockheed Martin, won contracts this year including a AED765 million deal for technical support and spare parts for Black Hawk helicopters. But deals also went to companies from Turkey, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and Italy.

About a quarter of the total value of this year’s 40 announced contracts went to UAE-based companies, reinforcing the federation’s push to develop domestic defence manufacturing. 

“Over the past 10 years, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh have displayed a growing interest in developing capabilities to manufacture more sophisticated defence products,” Leonardo Mazzucco, a defence analyst at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told AGBI.

The UAE has historically relied on the US as its primary arms provider, with 56 percent of its arms imports from 2000 to 2019 from the US, according to Statista. 

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Indian, Chinese and Russian defence companies were also present at Idex.

India’s Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd, which specialises in artillery systems and munitions, for instance, is setting up a regional office in Abu Dhabi, vice chairman Amit Kalyani said.

“We see the UAE as a very important step for our global ambitions,” Kalyani said, citing ease of business and logistics infrastructure.

The UAE’s Operation 300 billion strategy seeks to attract investment into local manufacturing, while Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 aims to localise 50 percent of defence spending by the end of the decade.

“Traditionally, the defence-industrial bases of the UAE and Saudi Arabia were limited to a handful of products, including maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, final assembly, and manufacturing of basic weapon systems,” Mazzucco said. 

“Gulf Arab countries have sought to cultivate close business ties with strategic partners willing to transfer sensitive military technology, creating a friendly business environment that lures foreign firms to produce weapons in the Gulf.”

The war in Ukraine, where drones are in heavy use, and missile attacks in the Middle East have also evolved the nature of perceived threats.

“We see more demand for our interceptors [designed to counter ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones],” Israel Aerospace Industries CEO Boaz Levy said, without giving details.

Israel’s defence exports hit a record $12.5 billion in 2022, with about $3 billion attributed to deals with Arab nations including the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

“The UAE and Saudi Arabia will likely leverage the mounting willingness of Israel and India to tap into their lucrative defence markets to extract technology-transfer deals while minimising the already low risk of potentially stricter arms export policy legislations by Western countries,” Mazzucco said.

“But they will still need to balance system interoperability with their largely Western-made weapons.”