How EDGE moved to geofence the UAE within 48 hours of February 28 escalation

Dubai: Within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation, EDGE had deployed its systems along the UAE’s shore border and established a geofence around the country using its own equipment alongside systems from allies, said Hamad Al Marar, Managing Director and CEO of EDGE Group.

The speed of that deployment resulted from years of preparation, Al Marar told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.

“The reality is we prepare for this day every day,” Al Marar said, recalling how EDGE responded when the attacks began.

“We are here to support our armed forces logistically and supply personnel, whatever they might need.”

The UAE-based defense contractor company, EDGE, which oversees more than 25 companies spanning platforms and systems, missiles and weapons, space and cyber technologies, trading and mission support, and homeland security, had been ready to deploy its equipment before February 28, according to Al Marar

“We, on the start of the conflict on Febraury 28, within 48 hours, we were able to deploy all our systems on the shore border, and we geofenced the UAE with our equipment and with ally equipment, and that been possible because we've been ready to deploy.”

Al Marar stressed that the UAE’s wider readiness could not have been created in response to a single event.

“This is not something you can prepare for overnight. It took decades.”

The experience has not caused EDGE to rewrite its technology strategy, Al Marar said, but it has pushed the company to bring some capabilities forward faster.

“The only thing that changes in our strategy because of the conflict is acceleration.”

Technologies that may previously have been planned for deployment years later are now being assessed for earlier introduction, with international partnerships providing one route to shortening development and qualification timelines.

“One thing is to design, but the other is to qualify,” he said.

Al Marar said working with established technology partners can help EDGE move proven systems into deployment sooner, without compromising sovereignty or its ability to adapt systems locally.

Europe, South Korea, India and the US are among the international partners he identified as important to EDGE.

The group is also assessing where acquiring companies, intellectual property or technology can reduce development times and bring products into service sooner.

EDGE does not look at such investments purely through a financial lens, according to Al Marar. The priority is whether an investment can accelerate technology development in the UAE, add know-how or shorten the route from development to operational use.

Al Marar said no country can be fully self-reliant, but relying entirely on overseas suppliers also carries risks when supply chains, production capacity and lead times come under pressure.

Vulnerability can also emerge elsewhere in the chain, including production capacity, lead times, and equipment availability. Having more capability inside the UAE therefore gives the country another layer of continuity, while allowing systems to be modified when threats change, he explained.

Al Marar stated that localisation goes beyond manufacturing a piece of equipment inside the country. The greater value lies in retaining the technical knowledge and design capability needed to change systems quickly.

“Your enemy is smart, and you need to outsmart them every single day.”

EDGE already has significant technology and manufacturing capability in the UAE, he said, although external expertise can still be brought in depending on individual projects and capacity requirements.

Counter-drone, electronic warfare and related technologies will remain areas of growing demand because threats can emerge from outside or within national borders, according to Al Marar.

The objective, he said, is to detect and deal with threats as far away as possible while reducing human error and keeping threats farther from the country.

Al Marar said EDGE will continue to seek more powerful equipment and upgrade existing systems as threats evolve.

The company’s future systems are also expected to place greater emphasis on autonomy, ease of use and range.

“We are reassessing our defense solutions. We are going to make them. We're going to make them more robust. We are going to make them more easy to use. We're gonna add more autonomy, and we are gonna repel them far, and we're gonna extend the range.”

Al Marar also sees room for much deeper defence cooperation across the Gulf, including the deployment of proven systems, shared manufacturing and strategic technology hubs.

His argument is that GCC countries operate in similar conditions, face common security requirements and can support equipment from within the same region.

“Today this is a GCC sovereignty. It's not only the UAE sovereignty,” he said.

Locating manufacturing and support capabilities across several Gulf countries could also reduce the risk created by concentrating production in a single location.

“There is no reason why we cannot cooperate across borders, and there is no reason why we cannot have hubs and strategic alliances in the GCC countries to serve different systems.”

Distributed production would also provide another layer of continuity if one facility or supply route were disrupted, he said.

“It's also important that your factories are also distributed. You don't want a single point of failure as well, so that ensures your business continuity.”

The longer-term challenge, Al Marar said, is that threats will continue to change, requiring EDGE to keep upgrading its systems.

Threats will change, Al Marar said, which means defence technology will have to change with them.

EDGE now plans to make its systems more robust, more autonomous and capable of detecting and repelling threats at greater distances, while continuing to shorten development and deployment timelines.

“If we want to be and reflect the same readiness that we had in the UAE on the 28th, we need to always plan for the worst.”