Manufacturing Anti-drone radar deal signed by Qatar and Italy’s Fincantieri By Chris Hamill-Stewart October 24, 2024, 7:56 AM Fincantieri The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, and the President of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, were present for the signing of the deal between Fincantieri and Barzan Holdings Deal worth $109m Signed with MoD-owned company System working by 2026 A company owned by Qatar’s Ministry of Defence has signed an agreement with the Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri for the joint development of a short-range anti-drone radar programme. The deal between Fincantieri and Barzan Holdings is worth about €100 million ($109 million), excluding the support, training and maintenance services linked to the radars, Reuters reported. The radar system, known as Omega360, will serve as the central sensor for Qatar’s national anti-drone system. Its first operational anti-drone units are expected to be produced by the end of 2026. The Italian company said in a statement: “The agreement with Barzan Holdings represents a strategic step toward the future of defence and security, combining innovation with local production capabilities.” Qatar Airways partners with Elon Musk’s Starlink Gulf militaries rush to keep up with drone tech progress Morocco plans to increase its military spending in budget Fincantieri has already established a strong relationship with Qatar, having supplied advanced naval units to the Qatar armed forces and collaborated with Barzan Holdings in recent years. In August 2017, Qatar purchased seven ships from Fincantieri in a deal worth an estimated €5 billion ($5.4 billion), one of Italy’s largest ever naval deals. Global military expenditure jumped 6.8 percent from 2022 to a record high of $2.443 billion in 2023, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said earlier this year. For the first time in its 60-year history, the institute reported a rise in military outlay in all five of the geographical regions defined by SIPRI. Spending as a share of GDP rose the highest in the Middle East (9 percent) to an estimated $200 billion, the report said, followed by states in Europe (2.8 percent), Africa (1.9 percent), Asia and Oceania (1.7 percent) and the Americas (1.2 percent). The latest data from the World Bank, from 2022, states that Qatar spends around 7 percent of GDP on military expenditure. Military spending in Qatar, which is home to the US’s Al Udeid Air Base, totalled $15.4 billion in 2022, according to SIPRI’s latest data.
