On Thursday, Emirati and Israeli state-owned weapons makers signed a strategic deal in Dubai to jointly design unmanned vessels capable of carrying out anti-submarine warfare.

United Arab Emirates defence conglomerate EDGE and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced the partnership on the final day of the biennial Dubai Airshow.

In a joint statement, both firms said, they would design the “170 M advanced modular unmanned service vessels that would be able to be used for both military and commercial purposes”.

Earlier in March, Aerospace and defence company IAI said it would jointly develop an advanced drone defense system with EDGE.

The 170 M vessels would be able to “operate semi- and fully autonomously and carry out missions including submarine detection and anti-submarine warfare”, said EDGE’s CEO in a statement.

“These developments will open many doors for us in local and global markets, military and commercial alike”.

Such vessels can also be used for intelligence gathering, surveillance, reconnaissance, mine detection and sweeping purposes including deploying platforms for certain types of aircraft.

Commercially, it would be able to be customised for oil and gas exploration among several other capabilities.

Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) will design the platform and integrate the control systems and payload, while IAI will develop the autonomous control system and integrate payloads to it.

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